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THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE 

AND HIS TRAVELLING CLOAK 


& Parable for goring anti ©ItJ 


BY THE AUTHOR OF 


‘JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN 



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NEW YORK: 46 East 14TH Street 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

BOSTON: 100 Purchase- Street 





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Copyright, 1893, 

By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 


/Zr 


Norhjootj ^Press : 

J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith. 
Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 


Enscrikti 


WITH DEEP TENDERNESS 


TO A DEAR LITTLE BOY I KNOW 






CHAPTER I. 

Yes, he was the most beautiful Prince that 
ever was born. 

Of course, being a prince, people said this : 
but it was true besides. When he looked at 
the candle, his eyes had an expression of ear- 
nest inquiry quite startling in a new-born baby. 
His nose — there was not much of it certainly, 
but what there was seemed an aquiline shape ; 
his complexion was a charming, healthy purple ; 

( 5 ) 


6 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


he was round and fat, straight-limbed and long 

— in fact, a splendid baby, and everybody was 
exceedingly proud of him. Especially his 
father and mother, the King and Queen of 
Nomansland, who had waited for him during 
their happy reign of ten years — now made 
happier than ever, to themselves and their 
subjects, by the appearance of a son and heir. 

The only person who was not quite happy 
was the king’s brother, the heir-presumptive, 
who would have been king one day, had the 
baby not been born. But as his Majesty was 
very kind to him, and even rather sorry for him, 

— insomuch that at the Queen’s request he 
gave him a dukedom almost as big as a county, 

— the Crown Prince, as he was called, tried to 
seem pleased also ; and let us hope he suc- 
ceeded. 

The Prince’s christening was. to be a grand 
affair. According to the custom of the coun- 
try, there were chosen for him four-and-twenty 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


7 


godfathers and godmothers, who each had to 
give him a name, and promise to do their ut- 
most for him. When he came of age, he him- 
self had to choose the name — and the god- 
father or godmother — that he liked best, for 
the rest of his days. 

Meantime, all was rejoicing. Subscriptions 
were made among the rich to give pleasure to 
the poor : dinners in town-halls for the working 
men ; tea-parties in the streets for their wives ; 
and milk and bun feasts for the children in the 
schoolrooms. For Nomansland, though I can- 
not point it out in any map, or read of it in any 
history, was, I believe, much like our own or 
many another country. 

As for the Palace — which was no different 
from other palaces — it was clean “ turned out 
of the windows,” as people say, with the prepa- 
rations going on. The only quiet place in it 
was the room which, though the Prince was six 
weeks old, his mother the Queen had never 


8 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


quitted. Nobody said she was ill, however ; it 
would have been so inconvenient ; and as she 
said nothing about it herself, but lay pale and 
placid, giving no trouble to anybody, nobody 
thought much about her. All the world was 
absorbed in admiring the baby. 

The christening-day came at last, and it was 
as lovely as the Prince himself. All the people 
in the palace were lovely too — or thought 
themselves so, in the elegant new clothes which 
the queen, who thought of everybody, had taken 
care to give them, from the ladies-in-waiting 
down to the poor little kitchenmaid, who looked 
at herself in her pink cotton gown, and thought, 
doubtless, that there never was such a pretty 
girl as she. 

By six in the morning all the royal household 
had dressed itself in its very best ; and then the 
little Prince was dressed in his best — his mag- 
nificent christening-robe ; which proceeding his 
Royal Highness did not like at all, but kicked 



I 


They came walking two and two, with their 
coronets on their heads.” 






































































THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


9 


and screamed like any common baby. When 
he had a little calmed down, they carried him 
to be looked at by the Queen his mother, who, 
though her royal robes had been brought and 
laid upon the bed, was, as everybody well knew, 
quite unable to rise and put them on. 

She admired her baby very much ; kissed 
and blessed him, and lay looking at him, as 
she did for hours sometimes, when he was 
placed beside her fast asleep ; then she gave 
him up with a gentle smile, and saying “she 
hoped he would be very good, that it would be a 
very nice christening, and all the guests would 
enjoy themselves,” turned peacefully over .on 
her bed, saying nothing more to anybody. 
She was a very uncomplaining person — the 
Queen, and her name was Dolorez. 

Everything went on exactly as if she had 
been present. All, even the King himself, 
had grown used to her absence, for she was 
not strong, and for years had not joined in 


IO 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


any gaieties. She always did her royal duties, 
but as to pleasures, they could go on quite 
well without her, or it seemed so. The com- 
pany arrived : great and notable persons in 
this and neighboring countries ; also the four- 
and-twenty godfathers and godmothers, who 
had been chosen with care, as the people 
who would be most useful to his Royal High- 
ness, should he ever want friends, which did 
not seem likely. What such want could pos- 
sibly happen to the heir of the powerful mom 
arch of Nomansland ? 

They came, walking two and two, with their 
coronets on their heads — being dukes and 
duchesses, princes and princesses, or the like ; 
they all kissed the child, and pronounced the 
name which each had given him. Then the 
four-and-twenty names were shouted out with 
great energy by six heralds, one after the 
other, and afterwards written down, to be 
preserved in the state records, in readiness 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


I 


for the next time they were wanted, which 
would be either on his Royal Highness’s cor- 
onation or his funeral. Soon the ceremony 
was over, and everybody satisfied ; except, 
perhaps, the little Prince himself, who moaned 
faintly under his christening robes, which 
nearly smothered him. 

In truth, though very few knew, the Prince 
in coming to the chapel had met with a slight 
disaster. His nurse — not his ordinary one, 
but the state nursemaid, an elegant and fash- 
ionable young lady of rank, whose duty it was 
to carry him to and from the chapel, had 
been so occupied in arranging her train with 
one hand, while she held the baby with the 
other, that she stumbled and let him fall, just 
at the foot of the marble staircase. To be 
sure, she contrived to pick him up again the 
next minute ; and the accident was so slight 
it seemed hardly worth speaking of. Conse- 
quently, nobody did speak of it. The baby 


12 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


had turned deadly pale but did not cry, so 
no person a step or two behind could dis- 
cover anything wrong ; afterwards, even if he 
had moaned, the silver trumpets were loud 
enough to drown his voice. It would have 
been a pity to let anything trouble such a 
day of felicity. 

So, after a minute’s pause, the procession 
had moved on. Such a procession ! Heralds 
in blue and silver ; pages in crimson and gold ; 
and a troop of little girls in dazzling white, 
carrying baskets of flowers, which they strewed 
all the way before the nurse and child, — 
finally the four-and-twenty godfathers and god- 
mothers, as proud as possible, and so splendid 
to look at that they would have quite extin- 
guished their small godson — merely a heap 
of lace and muslin with a baby -face inside — 
had it not been for a canopy of white satin 
and ostrich feathers, which was held over him 
wherever he was carried. 


♦THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


13 


Thus, with the sun shining on them through 
the painted windows, they stood ; the King 
and his train on one side, the Prince and his 
attendants on the other, as pretty a sight as 
ever was seen out of fairyland. 

“It’s just like fairyland,” whispered the el- 
dest little girl to the next eldest, as she shook 
the last rose out of her basket; “and I think 
the only thing the Prince wants now is a fairy 
godmother.” 

“ Does he ? ” said a shrill but soft and not 
unpleasant voice behind ; and there was seen 
among the group of children somebody — not 
a child — yet no bigger than a child: some- 
body whom nobody had seen before, and who 
certainly had not been invited, for she had no 
christening clothes on. 

She was a little old woman dressed all in 
gray : gray gown ; gray hooded cloak, of a 
material excessively fine, and a tint that 
seemed perpetually changing, like the gray 


14 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


of an evening sky. Her hair was gray, and 
her eyes also ; even her complexion had a 
soft gray shadow over it. But there was 
nothing unpleasantly old about her, and her 
smile was as sweet and childlike as the 
Prince’s own, which stole over his pale little 
face the instant she came near enough to 
touch him. 

“ Take care. Do n’t let the baby fall again.” 

The grand young lady nurse started, flushing 
angrily. 

“ Who spoke to me ? How did anybody 
know? — I mean, what business has anybody 
— ? ” Then, frightened, but still speaking in a 
much sharper tone than I hope young ladies 
of rank are in the habit of speaking — “Old 
woman, you will be kind enough not to say 
‘the baby,’ but ‘the Prince.’ Keep away ; his 
Royal Highness is just going to sleep.” 

“Nevertheless, I must kiss him. I am his 
godmother.” 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


15 


“ You !” cried the elegant lady nurse. 

“You!!” repeated all the gentlemen and 
ladies in waiting. 

“You!!!” echoed the heralds and pages — 
and they began to blow the silver trumpets, in 
order to stop all further conversation. 

The Prince’s procession formed itself for re- 
turning — the King and his train having already 
moved off towards the palace — but, on the 
topmost step of the marble stairs, stood, right 
in front of all, the little old woman clothed in 
gray. 

She stretched herself on tiptoe by the help of 
her stick, and gave the little Prince three kisses. 

“This is intolerable,” cried the young lady 
nurse, wiping the kisses off rapidly with her 
lace handkerchief. “ Such an insult to his 
Royal Highness. Take yourself out of the 
way, old woman, or the King shall be informed 
immediately.” 

“ The King knows nothing of me, more ’s the 


1 6 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

pity,” replied the old woman with an indifferent 
air, as if she thought the loss was more on his 
Majesty’s side than hers. “My friend in the 
palace is the King’s wife.” 

“Kings’ wives are called queens,” said the 
lady nurse, with a contemptuous air. 

“You are right,” replied the old woman. 
“Nevertheless, I know her Majesty well, and 
I love her and her child. And — since you 
dropped him on the marble stairs (this she said 
in a mysterious whisper, which made the young 
lady tremble in spite of her anger) — I choose 
to take him for my own. I am his godmother, 
ready to help him whenever he wants me.” 

“You help him !” cried all the group, break- 
ing into shouts of laughter, to which the little 
old woman paid not the slightest attention. 
Her soft gray eyes were fixed on the Prince, 
who seemed to answer to the look, smiling 
again and again in causeless, aimless fashion, 
as babies do smile. 





8 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


“His Majesty must hear of this,” said a 
gentleman-in-waiting. 

“His Majesty will hear quite enough news 
in a minute or two,” said the old woman sadly. 
And again stretching up to the little Prince, 
she kissed him on the forehead solemnly. 

“ Be called by a new name which nobody has 
ever thought of. Be Prince Dolor, in memory 
of your mother Dolorez.” 

“ In memory of ! ” Everybody started at the 
ominous phrase, and also at a most terrible 
breach of etiquette which the old woman had 
committed. In Nomansland, neither the king 
nor the queen were supposed to have any 
Christian name at all. They dropped it on 
their coronation-day, and it was never men- 
tioned again till it was engraved on their coffins 
when they died. 

“ Old woman, you are exceedingly ill-bred,” 
cried the eldest lady-in-waiting, much horrified. 
“ How you could know the fact passes my 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


19 


comprehension. But even if you did not know 
it, how dared you presume to hint that her 
most gracious Majesty is called Dolorez?” 

“ Was called Dolorez,” said the old woman 
with a tender solemnity. 

The first gentleman, called the Gold-stick-in- 
waiting, raised it to strike her, and all the rest 
stretched out their hands to seize her ; but the 
gray mantle melted from between their fingers 
like air ; and, before anybody had time to do 
anything more, there came a heavy, muffled, 
startling sound. 

The great bell of the palace — the bell which 
was only heard on the death of some of the 
Royal family, and for as many times as he or 
she was years old — began to toll. They lis- 
tened, mute and horror-stricken. Some one 
counted : one — two — three — four — up to 
nine and twenty — just the queen’s age. 

It was, indeed, the Queen. Her Majesty 
was dead ! In the midst of the festivities she 


20 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


had slipped away, out of her new happiness 
and her old sufferings, neither few nor small. 
Sending away her women to see the sight — at 
least, they said afterwards, in excuse, that she 
had done so, and it was very like her to do it — 
she had turned with her face to the window, 
whence one could just see the tops of the 
distant mountains — the Beautiful Mountains, 
as they were called — where she was born. So 
gazing, she had quietly died. 

When the little Prince was carried back to 
his mothers room, there was no mother to kiss 
him. And, though he did not know it, there 
would be for him no mother’s kiss any more. 

As for his Godmother — the little old woman 
in gray who called herself so — whether she 
melted into air, like her gown when they 
touched it, or whether she flew out of the 
chapel window, or slipped through the doorway 
among the bewildered crowd, nobody knew — 
nobody ever thought about her. 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


21 


Only the nurse, the ordinary homely one, 
coming out of the Prince’s nursery in the 
middle of the night in search of a cordial to 
quiet his continual moans, saw, sitting in the 
doorway, something which she woujd have 
thought a mere shadow, had she not seen 
shining out of it two eyes, gray and soft and 
sweet. She put her hand before her own, 
screaming loudly. When she took them away, 
the old woman was gone. 


CHAPTER II. 


Everybody was very kind to the poor little 
Prince. I think people generally are kind to 
motherless children, whether princes or peas- 
ants. He had a magnificent nursery, and a 
regular suite of attendants, and was treated 
with the greatest respect and state. Nobody 
was allowed to talk to him in silly baby lan- 
guage, or dandle him, or, above all, to kiss him, 
though, perhaps, some people did it surrepti- 
tiously, for he was such a sweet baby that it 
was difficult to help it. 

It could not be said that the Prince missed 
his mother ; children of his age cannot do that ; 
but somehow after she died everything seemed 
to go wrong with him. From a beautiful baby 
(22) 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


23 


he became sickly and pale, seeming to have 
almost ceased growing, especially in his legs, 
which had been so fat and strong. But after 
the day of his christening they withered and 
shrank ; he no longer kicked them out either 
in passion or play, and when, as he got to be 
nearly a year old, his nurse tried to make him 
stand upon them, he only tumbled down. 

This happened so many times, that at last 
people began to talk about it. A prince, and 
not able to stand on his own legs ! What a 
dreadful thing ! what a misfortune for the 
country ! 

Rather a misfortune to him also, poor little 
boy! but nobody seemed to think of that. And 
when, after a while, his health revived, and the 
old bright look came back to his sweet little 
face, and his body grew larger and stronger, 
though still his legs remained the same, people 
continued to speak of him in whispers, and 
with grave shakes of the head. Everybody 


24 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


knew, though nobody said it, that something, 
impossible to guess what, was not quite right 
with the poor little Prince. 

Of course, nobody hinted this to the King 
his father : it does not do to tell great people 
anything unpleasant. And besides, his Majesty 
took very little notice of his son, or of his 
other affairs, beyond the necessary duties of 
his kingdom. People had said he would not 
miss the Queen at all, she having been so long 
an invalid : but he did. After her death he 
never was quite the same. He established 
himself in her empty rooms, the only rooms in 
the palace whence one could see the Beautiful 
Mountains, and was often observed looking at 
them as if he thought she had flown away 
thither, and that his longing could bring her 
back again. And by a curious coincidence, 
which nobody dared to inquire into, he desired 
that the Prince might be called, not by any of 
the four-and-twenty grand names given him by 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


25 


his godfathers and godmothers, but by the 
identical name mentioned by the little old 
woman in gray, — Dolor, after his mother 
Dolorez. 

Once a week, according to established state 
custom, the Prince, dressed in his very best, 
was brought to the King his father for half-an- 
hour, but his Majesty was generally too ill and 
too melancholy to pay much heed to the child. 

Only once, when he and the Crown Prince, 
who was exceedingly attentive to his royal 
brother, were sitting together, with Prince 
Dolor playing in a corner of the room, dragging 
himself about with his arms rather than his 
legs, and sometimes trying feebly to crawl from 
one chair to another, it seemed to strike the 
father that all was not right with his son. 

“ How old is his Royal Highness ? ” said h£> 
suddenly to the nurse. 

“Two years, three months, and five days, 
please your Majesty.” 


26 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


“ It does not please me,” said the King with 
a sigh. “He ought to be far more forward 
than he is now, ought he not, brother? You, 
who have so many children, must know. Is 
there not something wrong about him ? ” 

“ Oh, no,” said the Crown Prince, exchanging 
meaning looks with the nurse, who did not 
understand at all, but stood frightened and 
trembling with the tears in her eyes. “Noth- 
ing to make your Majesty at all uneasy. No 
doubt his Royal Highness will outgrow it in 
time.” 

“ Outgrow — what ? ” 

“ A slight delicacy — ahem ! — in the spine ; 
something inherited, perhaps, from his dear 
mother.” 

“ Ah, she was always delicate ; but she was 
the sweetest woman that ever lived. Come 
here, my little son.” 

And as the Prince turned round upon his 
father a small, sweet, grave face — so like his 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


27 


mother’s — his Majesty the King smiled and 
held out his arms. But when the boy came to 
him, not running like a boy, but wriggling 
awkwardly along the floor, the royal counte- 
nance clouded over. 



“ I ought to have been told of this. It is 
terrible — terrible! And for a prince too! 
Send for all the doctors in my kingdom im- 
mediately.” 

They came, and each gave a different opin- 
ion, and ordered a different mode of treatment. 
The only thing they agreed in was what had 
been pretty well known before : that the prince 


28 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


must have been hurt when he was an infant — 
let fall, perhaps, so as to injure his spine and 
lower limbs. Did nobody remember ? 

No, nobody. Indignantly, all the nurses 
denied that any such accident had happened, 
was possible to have happened, until the faith- 
ful country nurse recollected that it really had 
happened, on the day of the christening. For 
which unluckily good memory, all the others 
scolded her so severely that she had no peace 
of her life, and soon after, by the influence of 
the young lady nurse who had carried the 
baby that fatal day, and who was a sort of 
connection of the Crown Prince, being his 
wife’s second cousin once removed, the poor 
woman was pensioned off, and sent to the 
Beautiful Mountains, from whence she came, 
with orders to remain there for the rest of her 
days. 

But of all this the King knew nothing, for, 
indeed, after the first shock of finding out that 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


2 9 


his son could not walk, and seemed never 
likely to walk, he interfered very little con- 
cerning him. The whole thing was too pain- 
ful, and his Majesty had never liked painful 
things. Sometimes he inquired after Prince 
Dolor, and they told him his Royal Highness 
was going on as well as could be expected, 
which really was the case. For after worrying 
the poor child and perplexing themselves with 
one remedy after another, the Crown Prince, 
not wishing to offend any of the different 
doctors, had proposed leaving him to nature ; 
and nature, the safest doctor of all, had come 
to his help, and done her best. He could 
not walk, it is true ; his limbs were mere 
useless additions to his body ; but the body 
itself was strong and sound. And his face 
was the same as ever — just his mother’s face, 
one of the sweetest in the world ! 

Even the King, indifferent as he was, some- 
times looked at the little fellow with sad ten- 


30 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


derness, noticing how cleverly he learned to 
crawl, and swing himself about by his arms, 
so that in his own awkward way he was as 
active in motion as most children of his age. 

“ Poor little man ! he does his best, and he 
is not unhappy ; not half so unhappy as I, 
brother,” addressing the Crown Prince, who 
was more constant than ever in his attendance 
upon the sick monarch. “If anything should 
befall me, I have appointed you as Regent. 
In case of my death, you will take care of my 
poor little boy ? ” 

“ Certainly, certainly ; but do not let us 
imagine any such misfortune. I assure your 
Majesty — everybody will assure you — that it 
is not in the least likely.” 

He knew, however, and everybody knew, 
that it was likely, and soon after it actually 
did happen. The King died, as suddenly and 
quietly as the Queen had done — indeed, in 
her very room and bed ; and Prince Dolor was 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


31 


left without either father or mother — as sad 
a thing as could happen, even to a Prince. 

He was more than that now, though. He 
was a king. In Nomansland, as in other coun- 
tries, the people were struck with grief one 
day and revived the next. “ The king is dead 
— long live the king!” was the cry that rang 
through the nation, and almost before his late 
Majesty had been laid beside the queen in their 
splendid mausoleum, crowds came thronging 
from all parts to the royal palace, eager to 
see the new monarch. 

They did see him — the Prince Regent took 
care they should — sitting on the floor of the 
council-chamber, sucking his thumb ! And 
when one of the gentlemen-in-waiting lifted 
him up and carried him — fancy, carrying a 
king! — to the chair of state, and put the 
crown on his head, he shook it off again, it 
was so heavy and uncomfortable. Sliding 
down to the foot of the throne, he began play- 


32 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

in g with the golden lions that supported it, 
stroking their paws and putting his tiny fingers 
into their eyes, and laughing — laughing as if 
he had at last found something to amuse him. 

“ There’s a fine king for you ! ” said the first 
lord-in-waiting, a friend of the Prince Regent’s 
(the Crown Prince that used to be, who, in the 
deepest mourning, stood silently beside the 
throne of his young nephew. He was a hand- 
some man, very grand and clever looking). 
“ What a king ! who can never stand to receive 
his subjects, never walk in processions, who, to 
the last day of his life, will have to be carried 
about like a baby. Very unfortunate ! ” 

“Exceedingly unfortunate,” repeated the 
second lord. “ It is always bad for a nation 
when its king is a child ; but such a child — 
a permanent cripple, if not worse.” 

“ Let us hope not worse,” said the first lord 
in a very hopeless tone, and looking towards 
the Regent, who stood erect and pretended to 



“ Sliding down to the foot of the throne, he began playing 
with the golden lions that supported it.” 


( 33 ) 


34 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


hear nothing. “ I have heard that these sort of 
children with very large heads and great broad 
foreheads and staring eyes, are — well, well, let 
us hope for the best and be prepared for the 
worst. In the meantime — ” 

“ I swear,” said the Crown Prince, coming 
forward and kissing the hilt of his sword — “I 
swear to perform my duties as regent, to take 
all care of his Royal Highness — his Majesty, 
I mean,” with a grand bow to the little child, 
who laughed innocently back again. “And I 
will do my humble best to govern the country. 
Still, if the country has the slightest objec- 
tion — ” 

But the Crown Prince being generalissimo, 
and having the whole army at his beck and call, 
so that he could have begun a civil war in no 
time ; the country had, of course, not the 
slightest objection. 

So the king and queen slept together in 
peace, and Prince Dolor reigned over the land 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


35 


— that is, h^s uncle did ; and everybody said 
what a fortunate thing it was for the poor little 
Prince to have such a clever uncle to take care 
of him. All things went on as usual ; indeed, 
after the Regent had brought his wife and her 
seven sons, and established them in the palace, 
rather better than usual. For they gave such 
splendid entertainments and made the capital so 
lively, that trade revived, and the country was 
said to be more flourishing than it had been for 
a century. 

Whenever the Regent and his sons appeared, 
they were received with shouts — “ Long live 
the Crown Prince ! ” “ Long live the Royal 
family ! ” And, in truth, they were very fine 
children, the whole seven of them, and made 
a great show when they rode out together 
on seven beautiful horses, one height above 
another, down to the youngest, on his tiny 
black pony, no bigger than a large dog. 

As for the other child, his Royal Highness 


36 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


Prince Dolor — for somehow people soon ceased 
to call him his Majesty, which seemed such a 
ridiculous title for a poor little fellow, a helpless 



cripple, with only head and trunk, and no legs 
to speak of — he was seen very seldom by any- 
body. 

Sometimes, people daring enough to peer 


THE LITTLE LAME ERlNCE. 


37 


over the high wall of the palace garden, noticed 
there, carried in a footman’s arms, or drawn in 
a chair, or left to play on the grass, often with 
nobody to mind him, a pretty little boy, with 
a bright intelligent face, and large melancholy 
eyes — no, not exactly melancholy, for they 
were his mother’s, and she was by no means 
sad-minded, but thoughtful and dreamy. They 
rather perplexed people, those childish eyes ; 
they were so exceedingly innocent and yet so 
penetrating. If anybody did a wrong thing, 
told a lie for instance, they would turn round 
with such a grave silent surprise — the child 
never talked much — that every naughty per- 
son in the palace was rather afraid of Prince 
Dolor. 

He could not help it, and perhaps he did not 
even know it, being no better a child than 
many other children, but there was something 
about him which made bad people sorry, and 
grumbling people ashamed of themselves, and 


38 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


ill-natured people gentle and kind. I suppose, 
because they were touched to see a poor little 
fellow who did not in the least know what had 
befallen him, or what lay before him, living his 
baby life as happy as the day was long. Thus, 
whether or not he was good himself, the sight 
of him and his affliction made other people 
good, and, above all, made everybody love him. 
So much so, that his uncle the Regent began 
to feel a little uncomfortable. 

Now, I have nothing to say against uncles 
in general. They are usually very excellent 
people, and very convenient to little boys and 
girls. 

Even the “ cruel uncle” of “The Babes in 
the Wood” I believe to be quite an exceptional 
character. And this “ cruel uncle ” of whom I 
am telling was, I hope, an exception too. 

He did not mean to be cruel. If anybody 
had called him so, he would have resented it 
extremely : he would have said that what he did 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


39 


was done entirely for the good of the country. 
But he was a man who had been always ac- 
customed to consider himself first and foremost, 
believing that whatever he wanted was sure to 
be right, and, therefore, he ought to have it. 
So he tried to get it, and got it too, as people 
like him very often do. Whether they enjoy it 
when they have it, is another question. 

Therefore, he went one day to the council- 
chamber, determined on making a speech and 
informing the ministers and the country at 
large that the young King was in failing health, 
and that it would be advisable to send him for 
a time to the Beautiful Mountains. Whether 
he really meant to do this; or whether it oc- 
curred to him afterwards that there would be 
an easier way of attaining his great desire, the 
crown of Nomansland, is a point which I cannot 
decide. 

But soon after, when he had obtained an 
order in council to send the King away — which 


40 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


was done in great state, with a guard of honor 
composed of two whole regiments of soldiers — 
the nation learnt, without much surprise, that 
the poor little Prince — nobody ever called him 
king now — had gone a much longer journey 
than to the Beautiful Mountains. 



He had fallen ill on the road and died within 
a few hours ; at least, so declared the physician 
in attendance, and the nurse who had been sent 
to take care of him. They brought his coffin 
back in great state, and buried it in the mauso- 
leum with his parents. 

So Prince Dolor was seen no more. The 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


41 


country went into deep mourning for him, and 
then forgot him, and his uncle reigned in his 
stead. That illustrious personage accepted his 
crown with great decorum, and wore it with 
great dignity, to the last. But whether he 
enjoyed it or not, there is no evidence to 
show. 


CHAPTER III. 


And what of the little lame prince, whom 
everybody seemed so easily to have forgotten ? 

Not everybody. There were a few kind 
souls, mothers of families, who had heard his 
sad story, and some servants about the palace, 
who had been familiar with his sweet ways — 
these many a time sighed and said “ Poor 
Prince Dolor ! ” Or, looking at the Beautiful 
Mountains, which were visible all over Nomans- 
land, though few people ever visited them, 
“Well, perhaps his Royal Highness is better 
where he is than even there.” 

They did not know — indeed, hardly anybody 
did know — that beyond the mountains, be- 
tween them and the sea, lay a tract of coun- 
(42) 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


43 


try, barren, level, bare, except for short stunted 
grass, and here and there a patch of tiny 
flowers. Not a bush — not a tree — not a rest- 
ing-place for bird or beast was in that dreary 
plain. In summer, the sunshine fell upon it 
hour after hour with a blinding glare ; in winter, 
the winds and rains swept over it unhindered, 
and the snow came down, steadily, noiselessly, 
covering it from end to end in one great white 
sheet, which lay for days and weeks unmarked 
by a single footprint. 

Not a pleasant place to live in — and nobody 
did live there, apparently. The only sign that 
human creatures had ever been near the spot, 
was one large round tower which rose up in the 
centre of the plain, and might be seen all over 
it — if there had been anybody to see, which 
there never was. Rose, right up out of the 
ground, as if it had grown of itself, like a mush- 
room. But it was not at all mushroom-like ; on 
the contrary, it was very solidly built. In form, 


44 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


it resembled the Irish round towers, which have 
puzzled people for so long, nobody being able 
to find out when, or by whom, or for what 
purpose they were made ; seemingly for no use 
at all, like this tower. It was circular, of very 
firm brickwork, with neither doors nor windows, 
until near the top, when you could perceive 
some slits in the wall, through which one might 
possibly creep in or look out. Its height was 
nearly a hundred feet, and it had a battlemented 
parapet, showing sharp against the sky. 

As the plain was quite desolate — almost like 
a desert, only without sand, and led to nowhere 
except the still more desolate sea-coast — no- 
body ever crossed it. Whatever mystery there 
was about the tower, it and the sky and the 
plain kept their secret to themselves. 

It was a very great secret indeed — a state 
secret — which none but so clever a man as the 
present king of Nomansland would ever have 
thought of. How he carried it out, undiscov- 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


45 


ered, I cannot tell. People said, long after- 
wards, that it was by means of a gang of 
condemned criminals, who were set to work, 
and executed immediately after they had done, 
so that nobody knew anything, or in the least 
suspected the real fact. 

And what was the fact? Why, that this 
tower, which seemed a mere mass of masonry, 
utterly forsaken and uninhabited, was not so at 
all. Within twenty feet of the top, some 
ingenious architect had planned a perfect little 
house, divided into four rooms — as by drawing 
a cross within a circle you will see might easily 
be done. By making skylights, and a few slits 
in the walls for windows, and raising a peaked 
roof which was hidden by the parapet, here was 
a dwelling complete ; eighty feet from the 
ground, and as inaccessible as a rook’s nest on 
the top of a tree. 

A charming place to live in ! if you once got 
up there, and never wanted to come down again. 


4 6 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


Inside — though nobody could have looked 
inside except a bird, and hardly even a bird 
flew past that lonely tower — inside it was 
furnished with all the comfort and elegance 
imaginable ; with lots of books and toys, and 
everything that the heart of a child could 
desire. For its only inhabitant, except a nurse 
of course, was a poor little solitary child. 

One winter night, when all the plain was 
white with moonlight, there was seen crossing 
it a great tall black horse, ridden by a man also 
big and equally black, carrying before him on 
the saddle a woman and a child. The woman 
— she had a sad fierce look, and no wonder, 
for she was a criminal under sentence of death, 
but her sentence had been changed to almost as 
severe a punishment. She was to inhabit the 
lonely tower with the child, and was allowed 
to live as long as the child lived — no longer. 
This, in order that she might take the utmost- 
care of him ; for those who put him there were 



“ There was seen a great, tall black horse, ridden by a man 
carrying before him on the saddle a woman and a child.” 


















































THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


47 


equally afraid of his dying and of his living. 
And yet he was only a little gentle boy, with a 
sweet sleepy smile — he had been very tired 
with his long journey — and clinging arms, 
which held tight to the man’s neck, for he was 
rather frightened, and the face, black as it was, 
looked kindly at him. And he was very help- 
less, with his poor small shrivelled legs, which 
could neither stand nor run away — for the 
little forlorn boy was Prince Dolor. 

He had not been dead at all — or buried 
either. His grand funeral had been a mere 
pretence : a wax figure having been put in 
his place, while he himself was spirited away 
under charge of these two, the condemned 
woman and the black man. The latter was 
deaf and dumb, so could neither tell nor repeat 
anything. 

When they reached the foot of the tower, 
there was light enough to see a huge chain 
dangling from the parapet, but dangling only 


48 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


half way. The deaf-mute took from his saddle- 
wallet a sort of ladder, arranged in pieces like 
a puzzle, fitted it together and 
lifted it up to meet the chain. 

Then he mounted to the top of 
the tower, and slung from it- a 
sort of chair, in which the woman 
and the child placed 
themselves and were 
drawn up, never 
to come down 
again as long as 
they lived. Leav- 
ing them there, 
the man de- 
scended the lad- 
der, took it to 
pieces again and 
packed it in his 
pack, mounted the 
horse and disap- 



THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


49 


peared across the plain. Every month they 
used to watch for him, appearing like a 
speck in the distance. He fastened his horse 
to the foot of the tower and climbed it, as 
before, laden with provisions and many other 
things. He always saw the Prince, so as to 
make sure that the child was alive and 
well, and then went away until the following 
month. 

While his first childhood lasted, Prince Dolor 
was happy enough. He had every luxury that 
even a prince could need, and the one thing 
wanting — love, never having known, he did not 
miss. His nurse was very kind to him, though 
she was a wicked woman. But either she had 
not been quite so wicked as people said, or she 
grew better through being shut up continually 
with a little innocent child, who was dependent 
upon her for every comfort and pleasure of his 
life. 

It was not an unhappy life. There was no- 


50 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


body to tease or ill-use him, and he was never 
ill. He played about from room to room — 
there were four rooms, parlor, kitchen, his 
nurse’s bed-room, and his own ; learnt to crawl 
like a fly, and to jump like a frog, and to run 



about on all-fours almost as fast as a puppy. 
In fact, he was very much like a puppy or a 
kitten, as thoughtless and as merry — scarcely 
ever cross, though sometimes a little weary. 

As he grew older, he occasionally liked to be 
quiet for a while, and then he would sit at the 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


51 


slits of windows, which were, however, much 
bigger than they looked from the bottom of the 
tower, — and watch the sky above and the 
ground below, with the storms sweeping over 
and the sunshine coming and going, and the 
shadows of the clouds running races across the 
blank plain. 

By-and-by he began to learn lessons — not 
that his nurse had been ordered to teach him, 
but she did it partly to amuse herself. She 
was not a stupid woman, and Prince Dolor was 
by no means a stupid boy; so they got on very 
well, and his continual entreaty “What can 
I do ? what can you find me to do ? ” was 
stopped; at least for an hour or two in the 
day. 

It was a dull life, but he had never known 
any other ; anyhow, he remembered no other ; 
and he did not pity himself at all. Not for 
a long time, till he grew to be quite a big little 
boy, and could read easily. Then he suddenly 


52 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


took to books, which the deaf-mute brought 
him from time to time — books which, not 
being acquainted with the literature of No- 
mansland, I cannot describe, but no doubt 
they were very interesting; and they informed 
him of everything in the outside world, and 
filled him with an intense longing to see it. 

From this time a change came over the boy. 
He began to look sad and thin, and to shut 
himself up for hours without speaking. For 
his nurse hardly spoke, and whatever questions 
he asked beyond their ordinary daily life she 
never answered. She had, indeed, been for- 
bidden, on pain of death, to tell him anything 
about himself, who he was, or what he might 
have been. He knew he was Prince Dolor, 
because she always addressed him as “my 
prince,” and “your royal highness,” but what 
a prince was he had not the least idea. He 
had no idea of anything in the world, except 
what he found in his books. 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


53 


He sat one day surrounded by them, having 
built them up round him like a little castle 
wall. He had been reading them, half the 
day, but feeling all the while that to read 
about things which you never can see is like 
hearing about a beautiful dinner while you 
are starving. For almost the first time in 
his life he grew melancholy : his hands fell 
on his lap; he sat gazing out of the window- 
slit upon the view outside — the view he had 
looked at every day of his life, and might look 
at for endless days more. 

Not a very cheerful view — just the plain 
and the sky — but he liked it. He used to 
think, if he could only fly out of that win- 
dow, up to the sky or down to the plain, how 
nice it would be ! Perhaps when he died — 
his nurse had told him once in anger that he 
would never leave the tower till he died — he 
might be able to do this. Not that he under- 
stood much what dying meant, but it must 


54 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


be a change, and any change seemed to him 
a blessing. 

“And I wish I had somebody to tell me all 
about it ; about that and many other things ; 
somebody that would be fond of me, like my 
poor white kitten.” 

Here the tears came into his eyes, for the 
boy’s . one friend, the one interest of his life, 
had been a little white kitten, which the deaf- 
mute, kindly smiling, once took out of his 
pocket and gave him — the only living creat- 
ure Prince Dolor had ever seen. For four 
weeks it was his constant plaything and com- 
panion, till one moonlight night it took a 
fancy for wandering, climbed on to the ’par- 
apet of the tower, dropped over and disap- 
peared. It was not killed, he hoped, for cats 
have nine lives ; indeed, he almost fancied he 
saw it pick itself up and scamper away, but 
he never caught sight of it more. 

“Yes, I wish I had something better than 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


55 


a kitten — a person, a real live person, who 
would be fond of me and kind to me. Oh, I 
want somebody — dreadfully, dreadfully!” 

As he spoke, there sounded behind him a 
slight tap-tap-tap, as of a stick or a cane, and 
twisting himself round, he saw — what do you 
think he saw ? 

Nothing either frightening or ugly, but still 
exceedingly curious. A little woman, no bigger 
than he might himself have been, had his legs 
grown like those of other children, but she 
was not a child — she was an old woman. 
Her hair was gray, and her dress was gray, 
and there was a gray shadow over her wher- 
ever she moved. But she had the sweetest 
smile, the prettiest hands, and when she spoke 
it was in the softest voice imaginable. 

“My dear little boy,” — and dropping her 
cane, the only bright and rich thing about 
her, she laid those two tiny hands on his 
shoulders — “ my own little boy, I could 


56 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


not come to you until you had said you 
wanted me, but now you do want me, here 
I am.” 

“And you are very welcome, madam,” re- 
plied the Prince, trying to speak politely, as 
princes always did in books ; “ and I am ex- 
ceedingly obliged to you. May I ask who you 
are? Perhaps my mother?” For he knew 
that little boys usually had a mother, and had 
occasionally wondered what had become of his 
own. 

“No,” said the visitor, with a tender, half- 
sad smile, putting back the hair from his 
forehead, and looking right into his eyes — 
“No, I am not your mother, though she was 
a dear friend of mine; and you are as like 
her as ever you can be.” 

“Will you tell her to come and see me 
then ? ” 

“ She cannot ; but I daresay she knows all 
about you. And she loves you very much — 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


57 


and so do I ; and I want to help you all I 
can, my poor little boy.” 

“Why do you call me poor?” asked Prince 
Dolor in surprise. 

The little old woman glanced down on his 
legs and feet, which he did not know were 
different from those of other children, and 
then at his sweet, bright face, which, though 
he knew not that either, was exceedingly dif- 
ferent from many children’s faces, which are 
often so fretful, cross, sullen. Looking at him, 
instead of sighing, She smiled. “ I beg your 
pardon, my prince,” said she. 

“Yes, I am a prince, and my name is Dolor; 
will you tell me yours, madam ? ” 

The little old woman laughed like a chime of 
silver bells. 

“I have not got a name — or rather, I have 
so many names that I do n’t know which to 
choose. However, it was I who gave you 
yours, and you will belong to me all your days. 
I am your godmother.” 


58 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


“ Hurrah ! ” cried the little prince ; “ I am 
glad I belong to you, for I like you very much. 
Will you come and play with me ? ” 

So they sat down together, and played. By- 
and-by they began to talk. 

“Are you very dull here?” asked the little 
old woman. 

“Not particularly, thank you, godmother. I 
have plenty to eat and drink, and my lessons to 
do, and my books to read — lots of books.” 

“And you want nothing?” 

“Nothing. Yes — perhaps — If you please, 
godmother, could you bring me just one more 
thing?” 

“What sort of thing?” 

“A little boy to play with.” 

The old woman looked very sad. “Just the 
thing, alas, which I cannot give you. My 
child, I cannot alter your lot in any way, but I 
can help you to bear it.” 

“ Thank you. But why do you talk of bear- 
ing it? I have nothing to bear.” 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


59 


“ My poor little man ! ” said the old woman in 
the very tenderest tone of her tender voice. 
“ Kiss me!” 

“What is kissing?” asked the wondering child. 

His godmother took him in her arms and 
embraced him many times. By-and-by he 
kissed her back again — at first awkwardly and 
shyly, then with all the strength of his warm 
little heart. 

“You are better to cuddle than even my 
white kitten, I think. Promise me that you 
will never go away.” 

“ I must ; but I will leave a present behind 
me — something as good as myself to amuse 
you — something that will take you wherever 
you want to go, and show you all that you wish 
to see.” 

“ What is it ? ” 

“A travelling-cloak.” 

The Prince’s countenance fell. “ I do n’t 
want a cloak, for I never go out. Sometimes 


6o 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


nurse hoists me on to the roof, and carries me 
round by the parapet; but that is all. I can’t 
walk, you know, as she does.” 

“The more reason why you should ride; and 
besides, this travelling-cloak — ” 

“ Hush ! — she ’s coming.” 

There sounded outside the room door a heavy 
step and a grumpy voice, and a rattle of plates 
and dishes. 

“It’s my nurse, and she is bringing my 
dinner ; but I do n’t want dinner at all — I only 
want you. Will her coming drive you away, 
godmother?” 

“Perhaps; but only for a little. Never 
mind; all the bolts and bars in the world 
couldn ’t keep me out. I ’d fly in at the win- 
dow, or down through the chimney. Only wish 
for me, and I come.” 

“Thank you,” said Prince Dolor, but almost 
in a whisper, for he was very uneasy at what 
might happen next. His nurse and his god- 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


6 1 


mother — what would they say to one another? 
how would they look at one another? — two 
such different faces: one, harsh-lined, sullen, 
cross, and sad ; the other, sweet and bright and 
calm as a summer evening before the dark 
begins. 

When the door was flung open, Prince Dolor 
shut his eyes, trembling all over : opening them 
again, he saw he need fear nothing ; his lovely 
old godmother had melted away just like the 
rainbow out of the sky, as he had watched it 
many a time. Nobody but his nurse was in the 
room. 

‘‘What a muddle your Royal Highness is 
sitting in,” said she sharply. “Such a heap 
of untidy books; and what’s this rubbish?” 
kicking a little bundle that lay beside them. 

“Oh, nothing, nothing — give it me!” cried 
the prince, and darting after it, he hid it under 
his pinafore, and then pushed it quickly into 
his pocket. Rubbish as it was, it was left in 


62 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


the place where she had sat, and might be 
something belonging to her — his dear, kind 
godmother, whom already he loved with all his 
lonely, tender, passionate heart. 

It was, though he did not know this, his 
wonderful travelling-cloak. 


CHAPTER IV. 


And what of the travelling-cloak? What 
sort of cloak was it, and what good did it do 
the Prince ? 

Stay, and I ’ll tell you all about it. 

Outside it was the commonest-looking bundle 
imaginable — shabby and small ; and the in- 
stant Prince Dolor touched it, it grew smaller 
still, dwindling down till he could put it in his 
trousers pocket, like a handkerchief rolled up 
into a ball. He did this at once, for fear his 
nurse should see it, and kept it there all day — 
all night, too. Till after his next morning’s les- 
sons he had no opportunity of examining his 
treasure. 

When he did, it seemed no treasure at all ; 

(63) 


6 4 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


but a mere piece of cloth — circular in form, 
dark green in color, that is, if it had any color 
at all, being so worn and shabby, though not 
dirty. It had a split cut to the centre, forming 
a round hole for the neck — and that was all 
its shape ; the shape, in fact, of those cloaks 
which in South America are called ponchos — 
very simple, but most graceful and convenient. 

Prince Dolor had never seen anything like it. 
In spite of his disappointment he examined it 
curiously ; spread it out on the floor, then ar- 
ranged it on his shoulders. It felt very warm 
and comfortable ; but it was so exceedingly 
shabby — the only shabby thing that the Prince 
had ever seen in his life. 

“ And what use will it be to me ? ” said he 
sadly. “ I have no need of outdoor clothes, as 
I never go out. Why was this given me, I 
wonder ? and what in the world am I to do with 
it? She must be rather a funny person, this 
dear godmother of mine.” 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


65 


Nevertheless, because she was his godmother, 
and had given him the cloak, he folded it care- 
fully and put it away, poor and shabby as it 
was, hiding it in a safe corner of his toy-cup- 
board, which his nurse never meddled with. 
He did not want her to find it, or to laugh at 
it, or at his godmother — as he felt sure she 
would, if she knew all. 

There it lay, and by-and-by he forgot all 
about it ; nay, I am sorry to say, that, being 
but a child, and not seeing her again, he al- 
most forgot his sweet old godmother, or thought 
of her only as he did of the angels or fairies that 
he read of in his books, and of her visit as if it 
had been a mere dream of the night. 

There were times, certainly, when he recalled 
her; of early mornings like that morning 
when she appeared beside him, and late 
evenings, when the gray twilight reminded 
him of the color of her hair and her pretty 
soft garments ; above all, when, waking in 


66 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


the middle of the night, with the stars peer- 
ing in at his window, or the moonlight shining 
across his little bed, he would not have been 
surprised to see her standing beside it, looking 
at him with those beautiful tender eyes, which 
seemed to have a pleasantness and comfort 
in them different from anything he had ever 
known. 

But she never came, and gradually she slipped 
out of his memory — only a boy’s memory, after 
all ; until something happened which made him 
remember her, and want her as he had never 
wanted anything before. 

Prince Dolor fell ill. He caught — his nurse 
could not tell how — a complaint common to 
the people of Nomansland, called the doldrums, 
as unpleasant as measles or any other of our 
complaints ; and it made him restless, cross, 
and disagreeable. Even when a little better^ 
he was too weak to enjoy anything, but lay all 
day long on his sofa, fidgeting his nurse ex- 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


67 


tremely — while, in her intense terror lest he 
might die, she fidgeted him still more. At last, 
seeing he really was getting well, she left him 
to himself — which he was most glad of, in 
spite of his dulness and dreariness. There he 
lay, alone, quite alone. 

Now and then an irritable fit came over him, 
in which he longed to get up and do something, 
or go somewhere — would have liked to imitate 
his white kitten — jump down from the tower 
and run away, taking the chance of whatever 
might happen. 

Only one thing, alas ! was likely to happen ; 
for the kitten, he remembered, had four active 
legs, while he — 

“ I wonder what my godmother meant when 
she looked at my legs and sighed so bitterly ? 
I wonder why I < can’t walk straight and steady 
like my nurse — only I wouldn’t like to have 
her great noisy, clumping shoes. Still, it would 
be very nice to move about quickly — perhaps 


68 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


to fly, like a bird, like that string of birds I saw 
the other day skimming across the sky — one 
after the other.” 

These were the passage-birds — the only liv- 
ing creatures that ever crossed the lonely plain ; 
and he had been much interested in them, 
wondering whence they came and whither they 
were going. 

“ How nice it must be to be a bird. If legs 
are no good, why can not one have wings ? 
People have wings when they die — perhaps : 
I wish I was dead, that I do. I am so tired, 
so tired ; and nobody cares for me. Nobody 
ever did care for me, except perhaps my god- 
mother. Godmother, dear, have you quite for- 
saken me?” 

He stretched himself wearily, gathered him- 
self up, and dropped his head upon his hands ; 
as he did so, he felt somebody kiss him at the 
back of his neck, and turning, found that he 
was resting, not on the sofa-pillows, but on a 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 69 

warm shoulder — that of the little old woman 
clothed in gray. 

How glad he was to see her! How he 
looked into her kind eyes, and felt her hands, 



to see if she were all real and alive ! then put 
both his arms round her neck, and kissed her 
as if he never would have done kissing ! 

“Stop, stop!” cried she, pretending to be 
smothered. “ I see you have not forgotten my 
teachings. Kissing is a good thing — in mod- 



7 o 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


eration. Only, just let me have breath to speak 
one word.” 

“A dozen ! ” he said. 

“ Well, then, tell me all that has happened to 
you since I saw you — or rather, since you saw 
me, which is a quite different thing.” 

“ Nothing has happened — nothing ever does 
happen to me,” answered the Prince dolefully. 

“ And are you very dull, my boy ? ” 

“ So dull, that I was just thinking whether I 
could not. jump down to the bottom of the 
tower like my white kitten.” 

“ Do n’t do that, being not a white kitten.” 

“ I wish I were ! — I wish I were anything 
but what I am ! ” 

“And you can’t make yourself any different, 
nor can I do it either. You must be content 
to stay just what you are.” 

The little old woman said this — very 
firmly, but gently, too — with her arms round 
his neck and her lips on his forehead. It was 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


7 1 


the first time the boy had ever heard anyone 
talk like this, and he looked up in surprise — 
but not in pain, for her sweet manner softened 
the hardness of her words. * 

“Now, my prince — for you are a prince, and 
must behave as such — let us see what we can 
do ; how much I can do for you, or show you 
how to do for yourself. Where is your travel- 
ling-cloak ? ” 

Prince Dolor blushed extremely. “ I — I put 
it away in the cupboard ; I suppose it is there 
still” 

“ You have never used it ; you dislike it ? ” 

He hesitated, not wishing to be impolite. 
“Do n’t you think it ’s — just a little old and 
shabby, for a prince?” 

The old woman laughed — long and loud, 
though very sweetly. 

“ Prince, indeed ! Why, if all the princes in 
the world craved for it, they could n’t get it, 
unless I gave it them. Old and shabby ! It ’s 


72 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


the most valuable thing imaginable ! Very few 
ever have it ; but I thought I would give it to 
you, because — because you are different from 
other people.” 

“Am I?” said the prince, and looked first 
with curiosity, then with a sort of anxiety, into 
his godmother’s face, which was sad and grave, 
with slow tears beginning to steal down. 

She touched his poor little legs. “ These are 
not like those of other little boys.” 

“ Indeed ! — my nurse never told me that.” 

“Very likely not. But it is time you were 
told; and I tell you, because I love you.” 

“ Tell me what, dear godmother ? ” 

“ That you will never be able to walk, or run, 
or jump, or play — that your life will be quite 
different to most people’s lives : but it may be 
a very happy life for all that. Do not be 
afraid.” 

“I am not afraid,” said the boy; but he 
turned very pale, and his lips began to quiver, 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 73 

though he did not actually cry — he was too 
old for that, and, perhaps, too proud. 

Though not wholly comprehending, he be- 
gan dimly to guess what his godmother meant. 
He had never seen any real live boys, but he 
had seen pictures of them ; running and jump- 
ing ; which he had admired and tried hard to 
imitate, but always failed. Now he began to 
understand why he failed, and that he always 
should fail — that, in fact, he was not like other 
little boys ; and it was of no use his wishing to 
do as they did, and play as they played, even 
if he had had them to play with. His was a 
separate life, in which he must find out new 
work and new pleasures for himself. 

The sense of the inevitable , as grown-up 
people call it — that we cannot have things as 
we want them to be, but as they are, and that 
we must learn to bear them and make the best 
of them — this lessen, which everybody has to 
learn soon or late — came, alas ! sadly soon, to 


7 4 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


the poor boy. He fought against it for a while, 
and then, quite overcome, turned and sobbed 
bitterly in his godmother’s arms. 

She comforted him — I do not know how, 
except that love always comforts ; and then she 
whispered to him, in her sweet, strong, cheerful 
voice — “ Never mind ! ” 

“No, I do n’t think I do mind — that is, I 
wont mind,” replied he, catching the courage 
of her tone and speaking like a man, though he 
was still such a mere boy. 

“ That is right, my prince ! — that is being 
like a prince. Now we knbw exactly where 
we are ; let us put our shoulders to the wheel 
and — ” 

“We are in Hopeless Tower” (this was its 
name, if it had a name), “and there is no 
wheel to put our shoulders to,” said the child 
sadly. 

“You little matter-of-fact goose! Well for 
you that you have a godmother called — ” 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


75 


“ What ? ” he eagerly asked. 

“ Stuff -and-nonsense.” 

“ Stuff-and-nonsense ! What a funny name ! ” 

“ Some people give it me, but they are not 
my most intimate friends. These call me — 
never mind what,” added the old woman, with 
a soft twinkle in her eyes. “ So as you know 
me, and know me well, you may give me any 
name you please ; it does n’t matter. But I am 
your godmother, child. I have few godchil- 
dren ; those I have love me dearly, and find me 
the greatest blessing in all the world.” 

“ I can well believe it,” cried the little lame 
Prince, and forgot his troubles in looking at her 
— as her figure dilated, her eyes grew lustrous 
as stars, her very raiment brightened, and the 
whole room seemed filled with her beautiful 
and beneficent presence like light. 

He could have looked at her for ever — half 
in love, half in awe ; but she suddenly dwindled 
down into the little old woman all in gray, and 


76 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


with a malicious twinkle in her eyes, asked for 
the travelling-cloak. 

“ Bring it out of the rubbish cupboard, and 
shake the dust off it, quick ! ” said she to Prince 
Dolor, who hung his head, rather ashamed. 
“Spread it out on the floor, and wait till the 
split closes and the edges turn up like a rim 
all round. Then go and open the skylight — 
mind, I say ’ open the skylight — set yourself 
down in the middle of it, like a frog on a water- 
lily leaf; say ‘Abracadabra, dum dum dum,’ 
and — see what will happen!” 

The prince burst into a fit of laughing. It 
all seemed so exceedingly silly; he wondered 
that a wise old woman like his godmother 
should talk such nonsense. 

“ Stuff-and-nonsense, you mean,” said she, 
answering, to his great alarm, his unspoken 
thoughts. “ Did I not tell you some people 
called me by that name? Never mind ; *it 
does n’t harm me.” 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


77 


And she laughed — her merry laugh — as 
childlike as if she were the prince’s age instead 
of her own, whatever that might be. She cer- 
tainly was a most extraordinary old woman. 

“ Believe me or not, it does n’t matter,” said 
she. “Here is the cloak : when you want to go 
travelling on it, say Abracadabra , dum dam dam ; 
when you want to come back again, say Abraca- 
dabra, turn turn ti. That’s all ; good-bye.” 

A puff of pleasant air passing by him, and 
making him feel for the moment quite strong 
and well, was all the Prince was conscious of. 
His most extraordinary godmother was gone. 

“ Really now, how rosy your Royal High- 
ness’s cheeks have grown ! You seem to have 
got well already,” said the nurse, entering the 
room. 

“I think I have,” replied the Prince very 
gently — he felt kindly and gently even to his 
grim nurse. “And now let me have my din- 
ner, and go you to your sewing as usual.” 



“Really now, how rosy your Royal Highness’s 


cheeks have grown ! ” 


( 78 ) 



THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


79 


The instant she was gone, however, taking 
with her the plates and dishes, which for the 
first time since his illness he had satisfactorily 
cleared, Prince Dolor sprang down from his 
sofa, and with one or two of his frog-like jumps, 
not graceful but convenient, he reached the 
cupboard where he kept his toys, and looked 
everywhere for his travelling-cloak. 

Alas ! it was not there. 

While he was ill of the doldrums, his 
nurse, thinking it a good opportunity for put- 
ting things to rights, had made a grand clear- 
ance of all his “rubbish,” as she considered it : 
his beloved headless horses, broken carts, sheep 
without feet, and birds without wings — all the 
treasures of his baby days, which he could not 
bear to part with. Though he seldom played 
with them now, he liked just to feel they were 
there. 

They were all gone ! and with them the 
travelling-cloak. He sat down on the floor, 


8o 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


looking at the empty shelves, so beautifully 
clean and tidy, then burst out sobbing as if 
his heart would break. 



But quietly — always quietly. He never let 
his nurse hear him cry. She only laughed at 
him, as he felt she" would laugh now. 

“ And it is all my own fault,” he cried. “ I 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


8 1 


ought to have taken better care of my god- 
mother’s gift. O, godmother, forgive me ! 
I ’ll never be so careless again. I do n’t know 
what the cloak is exactly, but I am sure it is 
something precious. Help me to find it again. 
Oh, do n’t let it be stolen from me — do n’t, 
please ! ” 

“ Ha, ha, ha ! ” laughed a silvery voice. 
“ Why, that travelling-cloak is the one thing 
in the world which nobody can steal. It is 
of no use to anybody except the owner. Open 

your eyes, my prince, and see what you shall 
»» 

see. 

His dear old godmother, he thought, and 
turned eagerly round. But no ; he only be- 
held, lying in a corner of the room, all dust 
and cobwebs, his precious travelling-cloak. 

Prince Dolor darted towards it, tumbling 
several times on the way, — as he often did 
tumble, poor boy ! and pick himself up again, 
never complaining. Snatching it to his breast, 


8 2 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


he hugged and kissed it, cobwebs and all, as if 
it had been something alive. Then he began 
unrolling it, wondering each minute what 
would happen. But what did happen was so 
curious that I must leave it for another 
chapter. 


CHAPTER V. 


If any reader, big or little, should wonder 
whether there is a meaning in this story, deeper 
than that of an ordinary fairy tale, I will own 
that there is. But I have hidden it so carefully 
that the smaller people, and many larger folk, 
will never find it out, and meantime the book 
may be read straight on, like “Cinderella,” or 
“ Blue -Beard,” or “Hop -o’ -my Thumb,” for 
what interest it has, or what amusement it may 
bring. 

Having said this, I return to Prince Dolor, 
that little lame boy whom many may think so 
exceedingly to be pitied. But if you had seen 
him as he sat patiently untying his wonderful 
cloak, which was done up in a very tight and 
( 83 ) 


8 4 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


perplexing parcel, using skilfully his deft 
little hands, and knitting his brows with firm 
determination, while his eyes glistened with 
pleasure, and energy, and eager anticipation 
— if you had beheld him thus, you might have 
changed your opinion. 

When we see people suffering or unfortu- 
nate, we feel very sorry for them ; but when 
we see them bravely bearing their sufferings, 
and making the best of their misfortunes, it 
is quite a different feeling. We respect, we 
admire them. One can respect and admire 
even a little child. 

When Prince Dolor had patiently untied all 
the knots, a remarkable thing happened. The 
cloak began to undo itself. Slowly unfolding, 
it laid itself down on the carpet, as flat as if 
it had been ironed ; the split joined with a 
little sharp crick-crack, and the rim turned up 
all round till it was breast-high ; for meantime 
the cloak had grown and grown, and become 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 85 

quite large enough for one person to sit in it, 
as comfortable as if in a boat. 

The Prince watched it rather anxiously; it 
was such an extraordinary, not to say a fright- 
ening thing. However, he was no coward, 
but a thorough boy, who, if he had been like 
other boys, would doubtless have grown up 
daring and adventurous — a soldier, a sailor, 
or the like. As it was, he could only show his 
courage morally, not physically, by being afraid 
of nothing, and by doing boldly all that it was 
in his narrow powers to do. And I am not 
sure but that in this way he showed more real 
valor than if he had had six pairs of proper legs. 

He said to himself, “What a goose I am! 
As if my dear godmother would ever have 
given me anything to hurt me. Here goes ! ” 
So, with one of his active leaps, he sprang 
right into the middle of the cloak, where he 
squatted down, wrapping his arms tight round 
his knees, for they shook a little and his heart 


86 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


beat fast. But there he sat, steady and silent, 
waiting for what might happen next. 

Nothing did happen, and he began to think 
nothing would, and to feel rather disappointed, 
when he recollected the words he had been 
told to repeat — “ Abracadabra, dum, dum, 
dum ! ” 

He repeated them, laughing all the while, 
they seemed such nonsense. And then — and 
then — 

Now, I do n’t expect anybody to believe 
what I am going to relate, though a good 
many wise people have believed a good many 
sillier things. And as seeing ’s believing, and 
I never saw it, I cannot be expected implicitly 
to believe it myself, except in a sort of a way ; 
and yet there is truth in it — for some people. 

The cloak rose, slowly and steadily, at first 
only a few inches, then gradually higher and 
higher, till it nearly touched the skylight. 

* Prince Dolor’s head actually bumped against 



“Prince Dolor’s head actually bumped against 
the glass.” 


( 87 ) 


88 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


the glass, or would have done so, had he not 
crouched down, crying, “ Oh, please do n’t hurt 
me ! ” in a most melancholy voice. 

Then he suddenly remembered his godmoth- 
er’s express command — “ Open the skylight ! ” 

Regaining his courage at once, without a 
moment’s delay, he lifted up his head and be- 
gan searching for the bolt, the cloak mean- 
while remaining perfectly still, balanced in air. 
But the minute the window was opened, out 
it sailed — right out into the clear fresh air, 
with nothing between it and the cloudless 
blue. 

Prince Dolor had never felt any such deli- 
cious sensation before ! I can understand it. 
Can not you ? Did you never think, in watch- 
ing the rooks going home singly or in pairs, 
oaring their way across the calm evening sky, 
till they vanish like black dots in the misty 
gray, how pleasant it must feel to be up there, 
quite out of the noise and din of the world, 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 89 

able to hear and see everything down below, 
yet troubled by nothing and teased by no one 

— all alone, but perfectly content. 

Something like this was the happiness of 

the little lame Prince when he got out of 
Hopeless Tower, and found himself for the 
first time in the pure open air, with the sky 
above him and the earth below. 

True, there was nothing but earth and sky ; 
no houses, no trees, no rivers, mountains, seas 

— not a beast on the ground, or a bird in the 
air. But to him even the level plain looked 
beautiful ; and then there was the glorious arch 
of the sky, with a little young moon sitting in 
the west like a baby queen. And the evening 
breeze was so sweet and fresh, it kissed him 
like his godmother’s kisses ; and by-and-by a 
few stars came out, first two or three, and then 
quantities — quantities ! so that, when he began 
to count them, he was utterly bewildered. 

By this time, however, the cool breeze had 


90 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


become cold, the mist gathered, and as he had, 
as he said, no outdoor clothes, poor Prince 
Dolor was not very comfortable. The dews 
fell damp on his curls — he began to shiver. 

“ Perhaps I had better go home,” thought he. 

But how? — For in his excitement the other 
words which his godmother had told him to 
use had slipped his memory. They were only a 
little different from the first, but in that slight 
difference all the importance lay. As he 
repeated his “Abracadabra,” trying ever so 
many other syllables after it, the cloak only 
went faster and faster, skimming on through 
the dusky empty air. 

The poor little Prince began to feel fright- 
ened. What if his wonderful travelling-cloak 
should keep on thus travelling, perhaps to the 
world’s end, carrying with it a poor, tired, 
hungry boy, who, after all, was beginning to 
think there was something very pleasant in 
supper and bed? 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


91 


“ Dear godmother,” he cried pitifully, “do 
help me ! Tell me just this once and I ’ll never 
forget again.” 

Instantly the words came rushing into his 
head — “ Abracadabra, turn, turn, ti ! ” Was 
that it? Ah, yes! — for the cloak began to 
turn slowly. He repeated the charm again, 
more distinctly and firmly, when it gave a 
gentle dip, like a nod of satisfaction, and 
immediately started back, as fast as ever, in 
the direction of the tower. 

He reached the skylight, which he found 
exactly as he had left it, and slipped in, cloak 
and all, as easily as he had got out. He had 
scarcely reached the floor, and was still sitting 
in the middle of his travelling-cloak — like a 
frog on a water-lily leaf, as his godmother had 
expressed it — when he heard his nurse’s voice 
outside. 

“Bless us! what has become of your Royal 
Highness all this time ? To sit stupidly here 


92 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


at the window till it is quite dark, and leave 
the skylight open too. Prince ! what can you 
be thinking of? You are the silliest boy I 
ever knew.” 

“ Am I ? ” said he absently, and never heed- 
ing her crossness ; for his only anxiety was 
lest she might find out anything. 

She would have been a very clever person 
to have done so. The instant Prince Dolor 
got off it, the cloak folded itself up into the 
tiniest possible parcel, tied all its own knots, 
and rolled itself of its own accord into the 
farthest and darkest corner of the room. If 
the nurse had seen it, which she did n’t, she 
would have taken it for a mere bundle of 
rubbish not worth noticing. 

Shutting the skylight with an angry bang, 
she brought in the supper and lit the candles, 
with her usual unhappy expression of counte- 
nance. But Prince Dolor hardly saw it ; he 
only saw, hid in the corner where nobody else 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


93 


would see it, his wonderful travelling-cloak. 
And though his supper was not particularly 
nice, he ate it heartily, scarcely hearing a word 
of his nurse’s grumbling, which to-night seemed 
to have taken the place of her sullen silence. 

“ Poor woman ! ” he thought, when he paused 
a minute to listen and look at her, with those 
quiet, happy eyes, so like his mother’s. “ Poor 
woman ! she has n’t got a travelling-cloak ! ” 

And when he was left alone at last, and crept 
into his little bed, where he lay awake a good 
while, watching what he called his “sky-gar- 
den,” all planted with stars, like flowers, his 
chief thought was, “I must be up very early 
to-morrow morning and get my lessons done, 
and then I ’ll go travelling all over the world on 
my beautiful cloak.” 

So, next day, he opened his eyes with the 
sun, and went with a good heart to his lessons. 
They had hitherto been the chief amusement of 
his dull life ; now, I am afraid, he found them 


94 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


also a little dull. But he tried to be good — I 
do n’t say Prince Dolor always was good, but he 
generally tried to be — and when his mind 
went wandering after the dark dusty corner 
where lay his precious treasure, he resolutely 
called it back again. 

“For,” he said, “how ashamed my godmother 
would be of me if I grew up a stupid boy.” 

But the instant lessons were done, and he 
was alone in the empty room, he crept across 
the floor, undid the shabby little bundle, his 
fingers trembling with eagerness, climbed on 
the chair, and thence to the table, so as to 
unbar the skylight — he forgot nothing now — 
said his magic charm, and was away out of the 
window, as children say, “ in a few minutes less 
than no time ! ” 

Nobody missed him. He was accustomed to 
sit so quietly always, that his nurse, though 
only in the next room, perceived no difference. 
And besides, she might have gone in and out a 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


95 


dozen times, and it would have been just the 
same ; she never could have found out his 
absence. 

For what do you think the clever godmother 
did ? She took a quantity of moonshine, or 
some equally convenient material, and made an 
image, which she set on the window-sill reading, 
or by the table drawing, where it looked so like 
Prince Dolor, that any common observer would 
never have guessed the deception ; and even 
the boy would have been puzzled to know which 
was the image and which was himself. 

And all this while the happy little fellow was 
away, floating in the air on his magic cloak, and 
seeing all sorts of wonderful things — or they 
seemed wonderful to him, who had hitherto 
seen nothing at all. 

First, there were the flowers that grew on 
the plain, which, whenever the cloak came near 
enough, he strained his eyes to look at ; they 
were very tiny, but very beautiful — white saxi- 


9 6 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


frage, and yellow lotus, and ground-thistles, 
purple and bright, with many others the names 
of which I do not know. No more did Prince 
Dolor, though he tried to find them out by 
recalling any pictures he had seen of them. 
But he was too far off ; and though it was 
pleasant enough to admire them as brilliant 
patches of color, still he would have liked to 
examine them all. He was, as a little girl I 
know once said of a playfellow, “ a very examin- 
ing boy.” 

“I wonder,” he thought, “whether I could 
see better through a pair of glasses like those 
my nurse reads with, and takes such care of. 
How I would take care of them too ! if only I 
had a pair ! ” 

Immediately he felt something queer and 
hard fixing itself on to the bridge of his nose. 
It was a pair of the prettiest gold spectacles 
ever seen ; and looking downwards, he found 
that, though ever so high above the ground, he 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


97 


could see every minute blade of grass, every 
tiny bud and flower — nay, even the insects 
that walked over them. 

“ Thank you, thank you ! ” he cried in a gush 
of gratitude — to anybody or everybody, but 
especially to his dear godmother, whom he felt 
sure had given him this new present. He 
amused himself with it for ever so long, with 
his chin pressed on the rim of the cloak, gazing 
down upon the grass, every square foot of 
which was a mine of wonders. 

Then, just to rest his eyes, he turned them 
up to the sky — the blue, bright, empty sky, 
which he had looked at so often and seen 
nothing. 

Now, surely there was something. A long, 
black, wavy line, moving on in the distance, not 
by chance, as the clouds move apparently, but 
deliberately, as if it were alive. He might have 
seen it before — he almost thought he had; but 
then he could not tell what it was. Looking 


98 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


at it through his spectacles, he discovered that 
it really was alive ; being a long string of birds, 
flying one after the other, their wings moving 
steadily and their heads pointed in one direc- 
tion, as steadily 'as if each were a little ship, 
guided invisibly by an unerring helm. 

“ They must be the passage-birds flying 
seawards ! ” cried the boy, who had read a 
little about them, and had a great talent for 
putting two and two together and finding 
out all he could. “ Oh, how I should like to 
see them quite close, and to know where they 
come from, and whither they are going ! How 
I wish I knew everything in all the world ! ” 

A silly speech for even an “ examining ” 
little boy to make ; because, as we grow older, 
the more we know, the more we find out there 
is to know. And Prince Dolor blushed when 
he had said it, and hoped nobody had heard 
him. 

Apparently somebody had, however ; for the 



“ 1 Thank you, thank you ! ’ he cried in a gush of 
gratitude.” 


( 99 ) 


IOO 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


cloak gave a sudden bound forward, and 
presently he found himself high up in air, 
in the very middle of that band of aerial trav- 
ellers, who had no magic cloak to travel on — 
nothing except their wings. Yet there they 
were, making their fearless way through the 
sky. 

Prince Dolor looked at them, as one after 
the other they glided past him ; and they looked 
at him — those pretty swallows, with their 
changing necks and bright eyes — as if won- 
dering to meet in mid-air such an extraordinary 
sort of a bird. 

“ Oh, I wish I were going with you, you 
lovely creatures ! ” cried the boy. “ I’m get- 
ting so tired of this dull plain, and the dreary 
and lonely tower. I do so want to see the 
world ! Pretty swallows, dear swallows ! tell 
me what it looks like — the beautiful, won- 
derful world ! ” 

But the swallows flew past him — steadily, 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


IOI 


slowly, pursuing their course as if inside each 
little head had been a mariner’s compass, to 
guide them safe over land and sea, direct to 
the place where they desired to go. 

The boy looked after them with envy. For 
a long time he followed with his eyes the faint 
wavy black line as it floated away, sometimes 
changing its curves a little, but never deviating 
from its settled course, till it vanished entirely 
out of sight. 

Then he settled himself down in the centre 
of the cloak, feeling quite sad and lonely. 

“ I think I ’ll go home,” said he, and repeated 
his “ Abracadabra, turn, turn, ti ! ” with a rather 
heavy heart. The more he had, the more he 
wanted ; and it is not always one can have 
everything one wants — at least, at the exact 
minute one craves for it ; not even though one 
is a prince, and has a powerful and beneficent 
godmother. 

He did not like to vex her by calling for her, 


102 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


and telling her how unhappy he was, in spite 
of all her goodness ; so he just kept his trouble 
to himself, went back to his lonely tower, and 
spent three days in silent melancholy without 
even attempting another journey on his trav- 
elling-cloak. 


CHAPTER VI. 


The fourth day it happened that the deaf- 
mute paid his accustomed visit, after which 
Prince Dolor’s spirits rose. They always did, 
when he got the new books, which, just to 
relieve his conscience, the King of Nomans- 
land regularly sent to his nephew ; with many 
new toys also, though the latter were disre- 
garded now. 

“Toys indeed! when I ’m a big boy,” said 
the Prince with disdain, and would scarcely 
condescend to mount a rocking-horse, which 
had come, somehow or other — I can’t be ex- 
pected to explain things very exactly — packed 
on the back of the other, the great black horse, 
which stood and fed contentedly at the bottom 
of the tower. 


104 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


Prince Dolor leaned over and looked at it, 
and thought how grand it must be to get 
upon its back — this grand live steed — and 
ride away, like the pictures of knights. 

“Suppose I was a knight,” he said to trim- 
self ; “ then I should be obliged to ride out 
and see the world.” 

But he kept all these thoughts to himself, 
and just sat still, devouring his new books till 
he had come to the end of them all. It was 
a repast not unlike the Barmecide’s feast which 
you read of in the “Arabian Nights,” which 
consisted of very elegant but empty dishes, or 
that supper of Sancho Panza in “Don Quixote,” 
where, the minute the smoking dishes came on 
the table, the physician waved his hand and 
they were all taken away. 

Thus, almost all the ordinary delights of 
boy-life had been taken away from, or rather 
never given to, this poor little Prince. 

“ I wonder,” he would sometimes think — 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


105 


“I wonder what it feels like to be on the 
back of a horse, galloping away, or holding 
the reins in a carriage, and tearing across the 
country, or jumping a ditch, or running a race, 
such as I read of or see in pictures. What a 
lot of things there are that I should like to 
do ! But first, I should like to go and see the 
world. I ’ll try.” 

Apparently it was his godmother’s plan 
always to let him try, and try hard, before he 
gained anything. This day the knots that tied 
up his travelling-cloak were more than usually 
troublesome, and he was a full half hour before 
he got out into the open air, and found him- 
self floating merrily over the top of the tower. 

Hitherto, in all his journeys he had never 
let himself go out of sight of home, for the 
dreary building, after all, was home — he re- 
membered no other; but now he felt sick of 
the very look of his tower, with its round 
smooth walls and level battlements. 


io 6 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


“ Off we go ! ” cried he, when the cloak 
stirred itself with a slight slow motion, as if 
waiting his orders. “Anywhere — anywhere, 
so that I am away from here, and out into 
the world.” 

As he spoke, the cloak, as if seized suddenly 
with a new idea, bounded forward and went 
skimming through the air, faster than the very 
fastest railway train. 

“Gee-up, gee-up!” cried Prince Dolor in great 
excitement. “This is as good as riding a race.” 

And he patted the cloak as if it had been 
a horse — that is, in the way he supposed 
horses ought to be patted ; and tossed his 
head back to meet the fresh breeze, and 
pulled his coat-collar up and his hat down, 
as he felt the wind grow keener and colder, 
colder than anything he had ever known. 

“What does it matter though?” said he. 
“ I ’m a boy, and boys ought not to mind any- 
thing.” 



“This day the knots that tied up his travelling-cloak 
were more than usually troublesome.” 


(107) 


io8 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


Still, for all his good-will, by-and-by he 
began to shiver exceedingly ; also, he had 
come away without his dinner, and he grew 
frightfully hungry. And to add to everything, 
the sunshiny day changed into rain, and being 
high up, in the very midst of the clouds, he 
got soaked through and through in a very few 
minutes. 

“ Shall I turn back ? ” meditated he. “ Sup- 
pose I say ‘ Abracadabra ’ ? ” 

Here he stopped, for already the cloak gave 
an obedient lurch, as if it were expecting to be 
sent home immediately. 

“ No — I can’t — I can’t go back ! I must go 
forward and see the world. But oh ! if I had 
but the shabbiest old rug to shelter me from 
the rain, or the driest morsel of bread and 
cheese, just to keep me from starving ! Still, I 
do n’t much mind ; I ’m a prince, and ought to 
be able to stand anything. Hold on, cloak, 
we ’ll make the best of it.” 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


IO9 


It was a most curious circumstance, but no 
sooner had he said this than he felt stealing 
over his knees something warm and soft ; in 
fact, a most beautiful bearskin, which folded 
itself round him quite naturally, and cuddled 
him up as closely as if he had been the cub of 
the kind old mother-bear that once owned it. 
Then feeling in his pocket, which suddenly 
stuck out in a marvellous way, he found, not 
exactly bread and cheese, nor even sandwiches, 
but a packet of the most dolicious food he had 
ever tasted. It was not meat, nor pudding, but 
a combination of both, and it served him ex- 
cellently for both. He ate his dinner with 
the greatest gusto imaginable, till he grew so 
thirsty he did not know what to do. 

“Couldn’t I have just one drop of water, if 
it did n’t trouble you too much, kindest of god- 
mothers? ” 

For he really thought this want was beyond 
her power to supply. All the water which 


1 10 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


supplied Hopeless Tower was pumped up with 
difficulty, from a deep artesian well — there 
were such things known in Nomansland — 
which had been made at the foot of it. But 
around, for miles upon miles, the desolate plain 
was perfectly dry. And above it, high in air, 
how could he expect to find a well, or to get 
even a drop of water ? 

He forgot one thing — the rain. While he 
spoke, it came on in another wild burst, as if 
the clouds had poured themselves out in a 
passion of crying, wetting him certainly, but 
leaving behind, in a large glass vessel which 
he had never noticed before, enough water to 
quench the thirst of two or three boys at least. 
And it was so fresh, so pure — as water from 
the clouds always is, when it does not catch 
the soot from city chimneys and other defile- 
ments — that he drank it, every drop, with the 
greatest delight and content. 

Also, as soon as it was empty, the rain filled 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


I I I 


it again, so that he was able to wash his face 
and hands and refresh himself exceedingly. 
Then the sun came out and dried him in no 
time. After that he curled himself up under 
the bearskin rug, and though he determined to 
be the most wide-awake boy imaginable, being 
so exceedingly snug and warm and comfortable, 
Prince Dolor condescended to shut his eyes, 
just for one minute. The next minute he was 
sound asleep. 

When he awoke, he found himself floating 
over a country quite unlike anything he had 
ever seen before. 

Yet it was nothing but what most of you 
children see every day and never notice it — a 
pretty country landscape, like England, Scot- 
land, France, or any other land you choose to 
name. It had no particular features — nothing 
in it grand or lovely — was simply pretty, noth- 
ing more ; yet to Prince Dolor, who had never 
gone beyond his lonely tower and level plain, 


I 12 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


it appeared the most charming sight imagi- 
nable. 

First, there was a river. It came tumbling 
down the hillside, frothing and foaming, play- 
ing at hide-and-seek among rocks, then burst- 
ing out in noisy fun like a child, to bury itself 
in deep still pools. Afterwards it went steadily 
on for a while, like a good grown-up person, till 
it came to another big rock, where it misbe- 
haved itself extremely. It turned into a 
cataract and went tumbling over and over, 
after a fashion that made the Prince — who 
had never seen water before, except in his 
bath or his drinking-cup — clap his hands with 
delight. 

“ It is so active, so alive ! I like things 
active and alive ! ” cried he, and watched it 
shimmering and dancing, whirling and leaping, 
till, after a few windings and vagaries, it settled 
into a respectable stream. After that it went 
along, deep and quiet, but flowing steadily on, 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 1 1 3 

till it reached a large lake, into which it slipped, 
and so ended its course. 

All this the boy saw, either with his own 
naked eye, or through his gold spectacles. He 
saw also as in a picture, beautiful but silent, 
many other things, which struck him with 
wonder, especially a grove of trees. 

Only think, to have lived to his age (which 
he himself did not know, as he did not know 
his own birthday) and never to have seen trees ! 
As he floated over these oaks, they seemed to 
him — trunk, branches, and leaves — the most 
curious sight imaginable. 

“If I could only get nearer, so as to touch 
them,” said he, and immediately the obedient 
cloak ducked down ; Prince Dolor made a 
snatch at the topmost twig of the tallest tree, 
and caught a bunch of leaves in his hand. 

Just a bunch of green leaves — such as we 
see in myriads ; watching them bud, grow, fall, 
and then kicking them along on the ground as 


I 14 the little lame prince. 

if they were worth nothing. Yet, how wonder- 
ful they are — every one of them a little dif- 
ferent. I don’t suppose you could ever find 
two leaves exactly alike, in form, color, and size 
— no more than you could find two faces alike, 
or two characters exactly the same. The plan 
of this world is infinite similarity and yet infi- 
nite variety. 

Prince Dolor examined his leaves with the 
greatest curiosity — and also a little caterpillar 
that he found walking over one of them. He 
coaxed it to take an additional walk over his 
finger, which it did with the greatest dignity 
and decorum, as if it, Mr. Caterpillar, were the 
most important individual in existence. It 
amused him for a long time ; and when a 
sudden gust of wind blew it overboard, leaves 
and all, he felt quite disconsolate. 

“ Still, there must be many live creatures in 
the world besides caterpillars. I should like 
to see a few of them.” 



“Prince Dolor made a snatch at the topmost twig 
of the tallest tree.” 


II 6 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

The cloak gave a little dip down, as if to say 
“All right, my Prince,” and bore him across 
the oak forest to a long fertile valley — called 
in Scotland a strath, and in England a weald 
— but what they call it in the tongue of No- 
mansland I do not know. It was made up of 
cornfields, pasturefields, lanes, hedges, brooks, 
and ponds. Also, in it were what the Prince 
had desired to see, a quantity of living creat- 
ures, wild and tame. Cows and horses, lambs 
and sheep, fed in the meadows ; pigs and fowls 
walked about the farmyards ; and, in lonelier 
places, hares scudded, rabbits burrowed, and 
pheasants and partridges, with many other 
smaller birds, inhabited the fields and woods. 

Through his wonderful spectacles the Prince 
could see everything ; but, as I said, it was a 
silent picture ; he was too high up to catch 
anything except a faint murmur, which only 
aroused his anxiety to hear more. 

“ I have as good as two pairs of eyes,” he 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 1 1 7 

thought. “I wonder if my godmother would 
give me a second pair of ears.” 

Scarcely had he spoken, than he found lying 
on his lap the most curious little parcel, all 
done up in silvery paper. And it contained — 
what do you think ? Actually, a pair of silver 
ears, which, when he tried them on, fitted so 
exactly over his own, that he hardly felt them, 
except for the difference they made in his 
hearing. 

There is something which we listen to daily 
and never notice. I mean the sounds of the 
visible world, animate and inanimate. Winds 
blowing, waters flowing, trees stirring, insects 
whirring (dear me ! I am quite unconsciously 
writing rhyme), with the various cries of birds 
and beasts — lowing cattle, bleating sheep, 
grunting pigs, and cackling hens — all the in- 
finite discords that somehow or other make a 
beautiful harmony. 

We hear this, and are so accustomed to it 


Il8 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

that we think nothing of it ; but Prince Dolor, 
who had lived all his days in the dead silence 
of Hopeless Tower, heard it for the first time. 
And oh ! if you had seen his face. 

He listened, listened, as if he could never 
have done listening. And he looked and 
looked, as if he could not gaze enough. Above 
all, the motion of the animals delighted him : 
cows walking, horses galloping, little lambs 
and calves running races across the meadows, 
were such a treat for him to watch — he that 
was always so quiet. But, these creatures 
having four legs, and he only two, the differ- 
ence did not strike him painfully. 

Still, by-and-by, after the fashion of children 
— and, I fear, of many big people too — he 
began to want something more than he had, 
something that would be quite fresh and new. 

“ Godmother,” he said, having now begun 
to believe that, whether he saw her or not, he 
could always speak to her with full confidence 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 1 19 

that she would hear him — “Godmother, all 
these creatures I like exceedingly — but I 
should like better to see a creature like myself. 
Could n’t you show me just one little boy? ” 

There was a sigh behind him — it might 
have been only the wind — and the cloak re- 
mained so long balanced motionless in air, 
that he was half afraid his godmother had 
forgotten him, or was offended with him for 
asking too much. Suddenly, a shrill whistle 
startled him, even through his silver ears, 
and looking downwards, he saw start up from 
behind a bush on a common, something — 
Neither a sheep, nor a horse, nor a cow — 
nothing upon four legs. This creature had 
only two ; but they were long, straight, and 
strong. And it had a lithe active body, and 
a curly head of black hair set upon its shoul- 
ders. It was a boy, a shepherdboy, about the 
Prince’s own age — but, oh ! so different. 

Not that he was an ugly boy — though his 


120 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


face was almost as red as his hands, and his 
shaggy hair matted like the backs of his own 
sheep. He was a rather nice-looking lad ; and 
seemed so bright, and healthy, and good-tem- 
pered — “jolly” would be the word, only I am 
not sure if they have such an one in the ele- 
gant language of Nomansland — that the little 
Prince watched him with great admiration. 

“ Might he come and play with me ? I 
would drop down to the ground to him, or fetch 
him up to me here. Oh, how nice it would be 
if I only had a little boy to play with me ! ” 

But the cloak, usually so obedient to his 
wishes, disobeyed him now. There were evi- 
dently some things which his godmother either 
could not or would not give. The cloak hung 
stationary, high in air, never attempting to 
descend. The shepherd-lad evidently took it 
for a large bird, and shading his eyes, looked 
up at it, making the Prince’s heart beat fast. 

However, nothing ensued. The boy turned 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


12 1 


round, with a long, loud whistle — seemingly his 
usual and only way of expressing his feelings. 
He could not make the thing out exactly — it 
was a rather mysterious affair, but it did not 
trouble him much — he was not an “examin- 
ing ” boy. 

Then, stretching himself, for he had been 
evidently half asleep, he began flopping his 
shoulders with his arms, to wake and warm 
himself ; while his dog, a rough collie, who had 
been guarding the sheep meanwhile, began to 
jump upon him, barking with delight. 

“ Down Snap, down ! Stop that, or I ’ll 
thrash you,” the Prince heard him say; though 
with such a rough hard voice and queer pro- 
nunciation that it was difficult to make the 
words out. “Hollo! Let ’s warm ourselves 
by a race.” 

They started off together, boy and dog — 
barking and shouting, till it was doubtful which 
made the most noise or ran the fastest. A 


122 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


regular steeple-chase it was : first across the 
level common, greatly disturbing the quiet 
sheep ; and then tearing away across country, 
scrambling through hedges, and leaping ditches, 
and tumbling up and down over ploughed fields. 
They did not seem to have anything to run for 

— but as if they did it, both of them, for the 
mere pleasure of motion. 

And what a pleasure that seemed ! To the 
dog of course, but scarcely less so to the boy. 
How he skimmed along over the ground — his 
cheeks glowing, and his hair flying, and his legs 

— oh, what a pair of legs he had ! 

Prince Dolor watched him with great intent- 
ness, and in a state of excitement almost equal 
to that of the runner himself — for a while. 
Then the sweet pale face grew a trifle paler, 
the lips began to quiver and the eyes to fill. 

“ How nice it must be to run like that ! ” he 
said softly, thinking that never — no, never in 
this world — would he be able to do the same. 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


123 


Now he understood what his godmother had 
meant when she gave him his travelling-cloak, 
and why he had heard that sigh — he was sure 
it was hers — when he had asked to see “just 
one little boy.” 

“ I think I had rather not look at him again,” 
said the poor little Prince, drawing himself back 
into the centre of his . cloak, and resuming his 
favorite posture, sitting like a Turk, with his 
arms wrapped round his feeble, useless legs. 

“You’re no good to me,” he said, patting 
them mournfully. “You never will be any 
good to me. I wonder why I had you at 
all ; I wonder why I was born at all, since I 

1 

was not to grow up like other little boys. 
Why not ? ” 

A question, so strange, so sad, yet so often 
occurring in some form or other, in this world 
— as you will find, my children, when you are 
older — that even if he had put it to his mother 
she could only have answered it, as we have to 


124 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


answer many as difficult things, by simply say- 
ing “I don’t know.” There is much that we 
do not know, and can not understand — we big 
folks, no more than you little ones. We have 
to accept it all just as you have to accept 
anything which your parents may tell you, 
even though you do n’t as yet see the reason 
of it. You may some time, if you do exactly 
as they tell you, and are content to wait. 

Prince Dolor sat a good while thus, or it 

« 

appeared to him a good while, so many 
thoughts came and went through his poor 
young mind — thoughts of great bitterness, 
which, little though he was, seemed to make 
him grow years older in a few minutes. 

Then he fancied the cloak began to rock 
gently to and fro, with a soothing kind of 
motion, as if he were in somebody’s arms ; 
somebody who did not speak, but loved him 
and comforted him without need of words ; not 
by deceiving him with false encouragement 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


125 


or hope, but by making him see the plain hard 
truth, in all its hardness, and thus letting him 
quietly face it, till it grew softened down, and 
did not seem nearly so dreadful after all. 

Through the dreary silence and blankness,* 
for he had placed himself so that he could see 
nothing but the sky, and had taken off his 
silver ears, as well as his gold spectacles — what 
was the use of either when he had no legs to 
walk or run ? — up from below there rose a 
delicious sound. 

You have heard it hundreds of times, my 
children, and so have I. When I was a child 
I thought there was nothing so sweet ; and 
I think so still. It was just the song of a 
skylark, mounting higher and higher from the 
ground, till it came so close that Prince Dolor 
could distinguish its quivering wings and tiny 
body, almost too tiny to contain such a gush 
of music. 

“ O, you beautiful, beautiful bird ! ” cried he ; 


126 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


“ I should dearly like to take you in and cuddle 
you. That is, if I could — if I dared.” 

But he hesitated. The little brown creature 
with its loud heavenly voice almost made him 
afraid. Nevertheless, it also made him happy; 
and he watched and listened — so absorbed 
that he forgot all regret and pain, forgot 
everything in the world except the little 
lark. 

It soared and soared, and he was just won- 
dering if it would soar out of sight, and what 
in the world he should do when it was gone, 
when it suddenly closed its wings, as larks do, 
when they mean to drop to the ground. But, 
instead of dropping to the ground, it dropped 
right into the little boy’s breast. 

What felicity ! If it would only stay ! A 
tiny soft thing to fondle and kiss, to sing to 
him all day long, and be his playfellow and 
companion, tame and tender, while to the rest 
of the world it was a wild bird of the air. 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


127 


What a pride, what a delight ! To have 
something that nobody else had — something 
all his own. As the travelling-cloak travelled 
on, he little heeded where, and the lark still 
stayed, nestled down in his bosom, hopped 
from his hand to his shoulder, and kissed 
him with his dainty beak, as if it loved him, 
Prince Dolor forgot all his grief,* and was 
entirely happy. 

But when he got in sight of Hopeless Tower, 
a painful thought struck him. 

“ My pretty bird, what am I to do with you ? 
If I take you into my room and shut you up 
there, you, a wild skylark of the air, what will 
become of you ? I am used to this, but you 
are not. You will be so miserable, and sup- 
pose my nurse should find you — she who 
can’t bear the sound of singing? Besides, 
I remember her once telling me that the 
nicest thing she ever ate in her life was lark 
pie ! ” 


128 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


The little boy shivered all over at the 
thought. And, though the merry lark imme- 
diately broke into the loudest carol, as if saying 
derisively that he defied anybody to eat him, — 
still Prince Dolor was very uneasy. In another 
minute he had made up his mind. 

“ No, my bird, nothing so dreadful shall 
happen to *you if I can help it ; I would rather 
do without you altogether. Yes, I ’ll try. Fly 
away, my darling, my beautiful ! Good-bye, 
my merry, merry bird.” 

Opening his two caressing hands, in which, 
as if for protection, he had folded it, he let 
the lark go. It lingered a minute, perching 
on the rim of the cloak, and looking at him 
with eyes of almost human tenderness ; then 
away it flew, far up into the blue sky. It was 
only a bird. 

But, sometime after, when Prince Dolor 
had eaten his supper — somewhat drearily, 
except for the thought that he could not 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


129 


possibly sup off lark pie now — and gone qui- 
etly to bed, the old familiar little bed, where 
he was accustomed to sleep, or lie awake con- 
tentedly thinking — suddenly he heard outside 
the window a little faint carol — faint but 
cheerful — cheerful, even though it was the 
middle of the night. 

The dear little lark ! it had not flown away 
after all. And it was truly the most extraor- 
dinary bird, for, unlike ordinary larks, it kept 
hovering about the tower in the silence and 
darkness of the night, outside the window 
or over the roof. Whenever he listened for 
a moment, he heard it singing still. 

He went to sleep as happy as a king. 


CHAPTER VII. 


“ Happy as a king.” How far kings are 
happy I can not say, no more than could Prince 
Dolor, though he had once been a king himself. 
But he remembered nothing about it, and there 
was nobody to tell him, except his nurse, who 
had been forbidden upon pain of death to let 
him know anything about his dead parents, 
or the king his uncle, or, indeed, any part of 
his own history. 

Sometimes he speculated about himself, 
whether he had had a father and mother as 
other little boys had, what they had been like, 
and why he had never seen them. But, know- 
ing nothing about them, he did not miss them 
— only once or twice, reading pretty stories 
(130) 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 131 

about little children and their mothers, who 
helped them when they were in difficulty, and 
comforted them when they were sick, he, 
feeling ill and dull and lonely, wondered what 
had become of his mother, and why she never 
came to see him. 

Then, in his history lessons, of course, he 
read about kings and princes, and the govern- 
ments of different countries, and the events 
that happened there. And though he but 
faintly took in all this, still he did take it in, 
a little, and worried his young brain about, it, 
and perplexed his nurse with questions, to 
which she returned sharp and mysterious an- 
swers, which only set him thinking the more. 

He had plenty of time for thinking. After 
his last journey in the travelling-cloak, the jour- 
ney which had given him so much pain, his de- 
sire to see the world had somehow faded away. 
He contented himself with reading his books, 
and looking out of the tower windows, and lis- 


132 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


tening to his beloved little lark, which had come 
home with him that day, and never left him again. 

True, it kept out of the way; and though 
his nurse sometimes dimly heard it, and said, 
“ What is that horrid noise outside ? ” she 
never got the faintest chance of making it into 
a lark pie. Prince Dolor had his pet all to 
himself, and though he seldom saw it, he knew 
it was near him, and he caught continually, at 
odd hours of the day, and even in the night, 
fragments of its delicious song. 

All during the winter — so far as there ever 
was any difference between summer and winter 
in Hopeless Tower — the little bird cheered 
and amused him. He scarcely needed any- 
thing more — not even his travelling-cloak, 
which lay bundled up unnoticed in a corner, 
tied up in its innumerable knots. Nor did his 
godmother come near him. It seemed as if 
she had given these treasures and left him 
alone — to use them, or lose them, apply them, 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


133 


or misapply them, according to his own choice. 
That is all we can do with children, when they 
grow into big children, old enough to distin- 
guish between right and wrong, and too old 
to be forced to do either. 

Prince Dolor was now quite a big boy. Not 
tall — alas ! he never could be that, with his 
poor little shrunken legs ; which were of no 
use, only an encumbrance. But he was stout 
and strong, with great sturdy shoulders, and 
muscular arms, upon which he could swing 
himself about almost like a monkey. As if in 
compensation for his useless lower limbs, nature 
had given to these extra strength and activity. 
His face, too, was very handsome ; thinner, 
firmer, more manly ; but still the sweet face of 
his childhood — his mother’s own face. 

How his mother would have liked to look 
at him ! Perhaps she did — who knows ! 

The boy was not a stupid boy either. He 
could learn almost everything he chose — and 


134 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


he did choose, which was more than half the 
battle. He never gave up his lessons till he 
had learnt them all — never thought it a pun- 
ishment that he had to work at them, and that 
they cost him a deal of trouble sometimes. 

“But,” thought he, “men work, and it must 
be so grand to be a man ; — a prince too ; and 
I fancy princes work harder than anybody — 
except kings. The princes I read about gen- 
erally turn into kings. I wonder” — the boy 
was always wondering — “ Nurse ” — and one 
day he startled her with a sudden question — 
“ tell me — shall I ever be a king ? ” 

The woman stood, perplexed beyond expres- 
sion. So long a time had passed by since her 
crime — if it was a crime — and her sentence, 
that she now seldom thought of either. Even 
her punishment — to be shut up for life in 
Hopeless Tower — she had gradually got used 
to. Used also to the little lame prince, her 
charge — whom at first she had hated, though 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


135 


she carefully did everything to keep him alive, 
since upon him her own life hung. But latterly 
she had ceased to hate him, and, in a sort of 
way, almost loved him — at least, enough to 
be sorry for him — an innocent child, impris- 



oned here till he grew into an old man — and 
became a dull, worn-out creature like herself. 
Sometimes, watching him, she felt more sorry 
for him than even for herself ; and then, seeing 
she looked a less miserable and ugly woman, 
he did not shrink from her as usual. 


136 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


He did not now. “Nurse — dear nurse,” 
said he, “ I do n’t mean to vex you, but tell 
me — what is a king ? shall I ever be one ? ” 

When she began to think less of herself 
and more of the child, the woman’s courage 
increased. The idea came to her — what harm 
would it be, even if he did know his own 
history? Perhaps he ought to know it — for 
there had been various ups and downs, usurpa- 
tions, revolutions, and restorations in Nomans- 
land, as in most other countries. Something 
might happen — who could tell ? Changes 
might occur. Possibly a crown would even 
yet be set upon those pretty, fair curls — 
which she began to think prettier than ever 
when she saw the imaginary coronet upon 
them. 

She sat down, considering whether her oath, 
never to “say a word” to Prince Dolor about 
himself, would be broken, if she were to take 
a pencil and write what was to be told. A 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


137 


mere quibble — a mean, miserable quibble. 
But then she was a miserable woman, more 
to be pitied than scorned. 

After long doubt, and with great trepidation, 
she put her finger to her lips, and taking the 
Prince’s slate — with the sponge tied to it, 
ready to rub out the writing in a minute — 
she wrote — 

“ You are a king.” 

Prince Dolor started. His face grew pale, 
and then flushed all over ; his eyes glistened ; 
he held himself erect. Lame as he was, 
anybody could see he was born to be a king. 

“ Hush ! ” said his nurse, as he was begin- 
ning to speak. And then, terribly frightened 
all the while — people who have done wrong 
always are frightened — she wrote down in a 
few hurried sentences his history. How his 
parents had died — his • uncle had usurped his 
throne, and sent him to end his days in this 
lonely tower. 


I38 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

“ I, too,” added she, bursting into tears. 
“ Unless, indeed, you could get out into the 
world, and fight for your rights like a man. 
And fight for me also, my prince, that I may 
not die in this desolate place.” 

“ Poor old nurse ! ” said the boy compassion- 
ately. For somehow, boy as he was, when he 
heard he was born to be a king, he felt like a 
man — like a king — who could afford to be 
tender because he was strong. 

He scarcely slept that night, and even though 
he heard his little lark singing in the sunrise, 
he barely listened to it. Things more serious 
and important had taken possession of his 
mind. 

“ Suppose,” thought he, “ I were to do as she 
says, and go out into the world, no matter how 
it hurts me — the world of people, active people, 
as active as that boy I saw. They might only 
laugh at me — poor helpless creature that I 
am ; but still I might show them I could do 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


139 


something. At any rate, I might go and see if 
there was anything for me to do. Godmother, 
help me ! ” 

It was so long since he had asked her help, 
that he was hardly surprised when he got no 
answer, — only the little lark outside the win- 
dow sang louder and louder, and the sun rose, 
flooding the room with light. 

Prince Dolor sprang out of bed, and began 
dressing himself, which was hard work, for he 
was not used to it — he had always been accus- 
tomed to depend upon his nurse for everything. 

“ But I must now learn to be independent,” 
thought he. “Fancy a king being dressed like 
a baby ! ” 

So he did the best he could — awkwardly but 
cheerily — and then he leaped to the corner 
where lay his travelling-cloak, untied it as 
before, and watched it unrolling itself — which 
it did rapidly, with a hearty good-will, as if 
quite tired of idleness. So was Prince Dolor — 


140 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


or felt as if he was. He jumped into the 
middle of it, said his charm, and was out 
through the skylight immediately. 

“ Good-bye, pretty lark ! ” he shouted, as he 
passed it on the wing, still warbling its carol 
to the newly-risen sun. “You have been my 
pleasure, my delight ; now I must go and 
work. Sing to old nurse till I come back 
again. Perhaps she ’ll hear you — perhaps she 
won’t — but it will do her good all the same. 
Good-bye!” 

But, as the cloak hung irresolute in air, he 
suddenly remembered that he had not deter- 
mined where to go — indeed, he did not know, 
and there was nobody to tell him. 

“ Godmother,” he cried, in much perplexity, 
“ you know what I want — at least, I hope you 
do, for I hardly do myself — take me where I 
ought to go ; show me whatever I ought to see 
— never mind what I like to see,” as a sudden 
idea came into his mind that he might see 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. I4I 

many painful and disagreeable things. But 
this journey was not for pleasure — as before. 
He was not a baby now, to do nothing but play 
— big boys do not always play. Nor men 
neither — they work. Thus much Prince Dolor 
knew — though very little more. And as the 
cloak started off, travelling faster than he had 
ever known it to do — through sky-land and 
cloud-land, over freezing mountain-tops, and 
desolate stretches of forest, and smiling- culti- 
vated plains, and great lakes that seemed to 
him almost as shoreless as the sea — he was 
often rather frightened. But he crouched 
down, silent and quiet; what was the use of 
making a fuss? and, wrapping himself up in 
his bear-skin, waited for what was to happen. 

After some time he heard a murmur in the 
distance, increasing more and more till it grew 
like the hum of a gigantic hive of bees. And, 
stretching his chin over the rim of his cloak, 
Prince Dolor saw — far, far below him, yet with 


142 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


his gold spectacles and silver ears on, he could 
distinctly hear and see — What ? 

Most of us have sometime or other visited a 
great metropolis — have wandered through its 
network of streets — lost ourselves in its crowds 
of people — looked up at its tall rows of houses, 
its grand public buildings, churches, and 
squares. Also, perhaps, we have peeped into 
its miserable little back alleys, where dirty 
children play in gutters all day and half the 
night — or where men reel tipsy and women 
fight — where even young boys gp about pick- 
ing pockets, with nobody to tell them it is 
wrong, except the policeman ; and he simply 
takes them off to prison. And all this wretch- 
edness is close behind the grandeur — like the 
two sides of the leaf of a book. 

An awful sight is a large city, seen anyhow, 
from anywhere. But, suppose you were to see it 
from the upper air ; where, with your eyes and 
ears open, you could take in everything at once ? 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


143 


What would it look like ? How would you feel 
about it ? I hardly know myself. Do you ? 

Prince Dolor had need to be a king — that 

is, a boy with a kingly nature — to be able to 
stand such a sight without being utterly over- 
come. But he was very much bewildered — as 
bewildered as a blind person who is suddenly 
made to see. 

He gazed down on the city below him, and 
then put his hand over his eyes. 

“ I can’t bear to look at it, it is so beautiful 
— so dreadful. And I do n’t understand it — 
not one bit. There is nobody to tell me about 

it. I wish I had somebody to speak to.” 

“ Do you ? Then pray speak to me. I was 
always considered good at conversation.” 

The voice that squeaked out this reply was 
an excellent imitation of the human one, though 
it came only from a bird. No lark this time, 
however, but a great black and white creature 
that flew into the cloak, and began walking 


144 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


round and round on the edge of it with a dig- 
nified stride, one foot before the other, like any 
unfeathered biped you could name. 

“I have n’t the honor of your acquaintance, 
sir,” said the boy politely. 

“ Ma’am, if you please. I am a mother bird, 
and my name is Mag, and I shall be happy to 
tell you everything you want to know. For I 
know a great deal ; and I enjoy talking. My 
family is of great antiquity ; we have built in 
this palace for hundreds — that is to say, dozens 
of years. I am intimately acquainted with the 
King, the Queen, and the little princes and 
princesses — also the maids of honor, and all 
the inhabitants of the city. I talk a good deal, 
but I always talk sense, and I dare say I should 
be exceedingly useful to a poor little ignorant 
boy like you.” 

“ I am a prince,” said the other gently. 

“All right. And I am a magpie. You will 
find me a most respectable bird.” 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


145 


“I have no doubt of it,” was the polite 
answer — though he thought in his own mind 
that Mag must have a very good opinion of 
herself. But she was a lady and a stranger, 
so, of course, he was civil to her. 

She settled herself at his elbow, and began 
to chatter away, pointing out with one skinny 
claw while she balanced herself on the other, 
every object of interest, — evidently believing, 
as no doubt all its inhabitants did, that there 
was no capital in the world like the great 
metropolis of Noman sland. 

I have not seen it, and therefore can not de- 
scribe it, so we will just take it upon trust, and 
suppose it to be, like every other fine city, the 
finest city that ever was built. “ Mag ” said 
so — and of course she knew. 

Nevertheless, there were a few things in 
it which surprised Prince Dolor — and, as he 
had said, he could not understand them at all. 
One half the people seemed so happy and busy 


146 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


— hurrying up and down the full streets, or 
driving lazily along the parks in their grand 
carriages, while the other half were so wretched 
and miserable. 

“ Can’t the world be made a little more level ? 
I would try to do it if I were the king.” 

“ But you ’re not the king : only a little 
goose of a boy,” returned the magpie loftily. 
“And I’m here not to explain things, only 
to show them. Shall I show you the royal 
palace ? ” 

It was a very magnificent palace. It had 
terraces and gardens, battlements and towers. 
It extended over acres of ground, and had in it 
rooms enough to accommodate half the city. 
Its windows looked in all directions, but none 
of them had any particular view — except a 
small one, high up towards the roof, which 
looked on to the Beautiful Mountains. But 
since the Queen died there, it had been closed, 
boarded up, indeed, the magpie said. It was 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


147 


so little and inconvenient, that nobody cared 
to live in it. Besides, the lower apartments, 
which had no view, were magnificent — worthy 
of being inhabited by his Majesty the King. 

“ I should like to see the King,” said Prince 
Dolor. 

But what followed was so important that I 
must take another chapter to tell it in. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


What, I wonder, would be most people’s 
idea of a king ? What was Prince Dolor’s ? 

Perhaps a very splendid personage, with a 
crown on his head, and a sceptre in his hand, 
sitting on a throne, and judging the people. 
Always doing right, and never wrong — “The 
king can do no wrong ” was a law laid down in 
olden times. Never cross, or tired, or sick, or 
suffering ; perfectly handsome and well-dressed, 
calm and good-tempered, ready to see and hear 
everybody, and discourteous to nobody ; all 
things always going well with him, and noth- 
ing unpleasant ever happening. 

This, probably, was what Prince Dolor ex- 
pected to see. And what did he see ? But I 
must tell you how he saw it. 

(148) 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. I49 

“Ah,” said the magpie, “no levee to-day. 
The King is ill, though his Majesty does not 
wish it to be generally known — it would be 
so very inconvenient. He can’t see you, but 
perhaps you might like to go and take a look 
at him, in a way I often do? It is so very 
amusing.” 

Amusing, indeed ! 

The Prince was just now too much excited 
to talk much. Was he not going to see the 
King his uncle, who had succeeded his father, 
and dethroned himself ; had stepped into all 
the pleasant things that he, Prince Dolor, 
ought to have had, and shut him up in a 
desolate tower? What was he like, this great, 
bad, clever man ? Had he got all the things 
he wanted, which another ought to have had ? 
And did he enjoy them ? 

“Nobody knows,” answered the magpie, just 
as if she had been sitting inside the Prince’s 
heart, instead of on the top of his shoulder. 


150 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

“ He is a king, and that ’s enough. For the 
rest nobody knows.” 

As she spoke Mag flew down on to the 
palace roof, where the cloak had rested, set- 
tling down between the great stacks of chim- 
neys as comfortably as if on the ground. She 
pecked at the tiles with her beak — truly she 
was a wonderful bird — and immediately a lit- 
tle hole opened, a sort of door, through which 
could be seen distinctly the chamber below. 

“ Now look in, my prince. Make haste, for 
I must soon shut it up again.” 

But the boy hesitated. “ Is n’t it rude ? — 
won’t they think us — intruding?” 

“ O dear no ! there ’s a hole like this in 
every palace ; dozens of holes, indeed. Every- 
body knows it, but nobody speaks of it. In- 
trusion ! Why, though the Royal family are 
supposed to live shut up behind stone walls 
ever so thick, all the world knows that they 
live in a glass house where everybody can 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. I 5 I 

see them, and throw a stone at them. Now, 
pop down on your knees, and take a peep at 
his Majesty.” 

His Majesty! 

The Prince gazed eagerly down, into a large 
room, the largest room he had ever beheld, 
with furniture and hangings grander than any- 
thing he could have ever imagined. A stray 
sunbeam, coming through a crevice of the dark- 
ened windows, struck across the carpet, and it 
was the loveliest carpet ever woven — just like 
a bed of flowers to walk over; only nobody 
walked over it ; the room being perfectly empty 
and silent. 

“Where is the King?” asked the puzzled 
boy. 

“There,” said Mag, pointing with one wrin- 
kled claw to a magnificent bed, large enough 
to contain six people. In the centre of it, 
just visible under the silken counterpane — 
quite straight and still — with its head on the 


152 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


lace pillow — lay a small figure, something like 
waxwork, fast asleep — very fast asleep! There 
were a quantity of sparkling rings on the tiny 
yellow hands, that were curled a little, help- 
lessly, like a baby’s, outside the coverlet ; the 
eyes were shut, the nose looked sharp and 
thin, and the long gray beard hid the mouth, 
and lay over the breast. A sight not ugly, 
nor frightening, only solemn and quiet. And 
so very silent — two little flies buzzing about 
the curtains of the bed, being the only audi- 
ble sound. 

“Is that the King?” whispered Prince Dolor. 

“Yes,” replied the bird. 

He had been angry — furiously angry; ever 
since he knew how his uncle had taken the 
crown, and sent him, a poor little helpless 
child, to be shut up for life, just as if he had 
been dead. Many times the boy had felt as 
if, king as he was, he should like to strike 
him, this great, strong, wicked man. 



“ ‘ Is that the King ? 1 whispered Prince Dolor.” 

(i53) 



154 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


Why, you might as well have struck a baby ! 
How helpless he lay ! with his eyes shut, and 
his idle hands folded : they had no more work 
to do, bad or good. 

“ What is the matter with him ? ” asked the 
Prince again. 

“ He is dead,” said the magpie with a croak. 

No, there was not the least use in being 
angry with him now. On the contrary, the 
Prince felt almost sorry for him, except that he 
looked so peaceful, with all his cares at rest. 
And this was being dead ? So, even kings died ? 

“Well, well, he hadn’t an easy life, folk say, 
for all his grandeur. Perhaps he is glad it is 
over. Good-bye, your Majesty.” 

With another cheerful tap of her beak, Mis- 
tress Mag shut down the little door in the tiles, 
and Prince Dolor’s first and last sight of his 
uncle was ended. 

He sat in the centre of his travelling-cloak 
silent and thoughtful. 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


55 


“What shall we do now?” said the magpie. 
“ There ’s nothing much more to be done with 
his Majesty, except a fine funeral, which I shall 
certainly go and see. All the world will. He 
interested the world exceedingly when he was 
alive, and he ought to do it now he ’s dead — 
just once more. And since he can’t hear me, 
I may as well say that, on the whole, his 
Majesty is much better dead than alive — if we 
can only get somebody in his place. There ’ll 
be such a row in the city presently. Suppose 
we float up again, and see it all. At a safe 
distance, though. It will be such fun.” 

“ What will be fun ? ” 

“A revolution.” 

Whether anybody except a magpie would 
have called it “fun,” I don’t know, but it 
certainly was a remarkable scene. 

As soon as the Cathedral bell began to toll, 
and the minute guns to fire, announcing to the 
kingdom that it was without a king, the people 


156 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


gathered in crowds, stopping at street corners 
to talk together. The murmur now and then 
rose into a shout, and the shout into a roar. 
When Prince Dolor, quietly floating in upper 
air, caught the sound of their different and 
opposite cries, it seemed to him as if the whole 
city had gone mad together. 

“ Long live the King ! ” “The King is dead 
— down with the King ! ” “ Down with the 

crown, and the King too ! ” “ Hurrah for the 

Republic ! ” “ Hurrah for no Government at all.” 

Such were the shouts which travelled up to 
the travelling-cloak. And then began — oh, 
what a scene ! 

When you children are grown men and 
women — or before — you will hear and read 
in books about what are called revolutions — 
earnestly I trust that neither I nor you may 
ever see one. But they have happened, and 
may happen again, in other countries beside 
Nomansland, when wicked kings have helped 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


157 


to make their people wicked too, or out of an 
unrighteous nation have sprung rulers equally 
bad ; or, without either of these causes, when 
a restless country has fancied any change 
better than no change at all. 



For me, I do n’t like changes, unless pretty 
sure that they are for good. And how good 
can come out of absolute evil — the horrible 
evil that went on this night under Prince 
Dolor’s very eyes — soldiers shooting people 
down by hundreds in the streets, scaffolds 


i 5 8 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


erected, and heads dropping off — houses burnt, 
and women and children murdered — this is 
more than I can understand. 

But all these things you will find in history, 
my children, and must by-and-by judge for 
yourselves the right and wrong of them, as far 
as anybody ever can judge. 

Prince Dolor saw it all. Things happened so 
fast after one another that they quite confused 
his faculties. 

“ Oh, let me go home,” he cried at last, 
stopping his ears and shutting his eyes ; “ only 
let me go home ! ” for even his lonely tower 
seemed home, and its dreariness and silence 
absolute paradise after all this. 

“ Good-bye, then,” said the magpie, flapping 
her wings. She had been chatting incessantly 
all day and all night, for it was actually thus 
long that Prince Dolor had been hovering over 
the city, neither eating nor sleeping, with all 
these terrible things happening under his very 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


159 


eyes. “You’ve had enough, I suppose, of 
seeing the world?” 

“ Oh, I have — I have ! ” cried the Prince 
with a shudder. 

“That is, till next time. All right, your 
Royal Highness. You do n’t know me, but 
I know you. We may meet again sometime.” 

She looked at him with her clear piercing 
eyes, sharp enough to see through everything, 
and it seemed as if they changed from bird’s 
eyes to human eyes, the very eyes of his god- 
mother, whom he had not seen for ever so long. 
But the minute afterwards she became only 
a bird, and with a screech and a chatter spread 
her wings and flew away. 

Prince Dolor fell into a kind of swoon, of utter 
misery, bewilderment, and exhaustion, and when 
he awoke he found himself in his own room — 
alone and quiet — with the dawn just breaking, 
and the long rim of yellow light in the horizon 
glimmering through the window panes. 


CHAPTER IX. 


When Prince Dolor sat up in bed, trying to 
remember where he was, whither he had been, 
and what he had seen the day before, he per- 
ceived that his room was empty. 

Generally, his nurse rather worried him by 
breaking his slumbers, coming in and “ setting 
things to rights,” as she called it. Now, the 
dust lay thick upon chairs and tables ; there 
was no harsh voice heard to scold him for not 
getting up immediately — which, I am sorry to 
say, this boy did not always do. For he so 
enjoyed lying still, and thinking lazily, about 
everything or nothing, that, if he had not tried 
hard against it, he would certainly have become 
like those celebrated 

“Two little men 

Who lay in their bed till the clock struck ten.” 

(160) 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. l6l 

It was striking ten now, and still no nurse was 
to be seen. He was rather relieved at first, for 
he felt so tired ; and besides, when he stretched 
out his arm, he found to his dismay that he had 
gone to bed in his clothes. 

Very uncomfortable he felt, of course ; and 
just a little frightened. Especially when he 
began to call and call again, but nobody an- 
swered. Often he used to think how nice it 
would be to get rid of his nurse and live in this 
tower all by himself — like a sort of monarch, 
able to do everything he liked, and leave un- 
done all that he did not want to do ; but now 
that this seemed really to have happened, he 
did not like it at all. 

“ Nurse — dear nurse — please come back ! ” 
he called out. “ Come back, and I will be the 
best boy in all the land.” 

And when she did not come back, and noth- 
ing but silence answered his lamentable call, 
he very nearly began to cry. 


1 62 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

“This won’t do,” he said at last, dashing 
the tears from his eyes. “ It ’s just like a baby, 
and I ’m a big boy — shall be a man some day. 
What has happened, I wonder ? I ’ll go and 
see.” 

He sprang out of bed — not to his feet, alas ! 
but to his poor little weak knees, and crawled 
on them from room to room. All the four 
chambers were deserted — not forlorn or un- 
tidy, for everything seemed to have been done 
for his comfort — the breakfast and dinner- 
things were laid, the food spread in order. He 
might live “like a prince,” as the proverb is, 
for several days. But the place was entirely 
forsaken — there was evidently not a creature 
but himself in the solitary tower. 

A great fear came upon the poor boy. 
Lonely as his life had been, he had never 
known what it was to be absolutely alone. 
A kind of despair seized him — no violent anger 
or terror, but a sort of patient desolation. 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 1 63 

“ What in the world am I to do ? ” thought 
he, and sat down in the middle of the floor, 
half inclined to believe that it would be better 
to give up entirely, lay himself down and die. 

This feeling, however, did not last long, 
for he was young and strong, and I said 
before, by nature a very courageous boy. 
There came into his head, somehow or other, 
a proverb that his nurse had taught him — 
the people of Nomansland were very fond of 
proverbs : — 

‘‘For every evil under the sun 
There is a remedy, or there ’s none ; 

If there is one, try to find it — 

If there is n’t, never mind it.” 

“I wonder — is there a remedy now, and 
could I find it?” cried the Prince, jumping 
up and looking out of the window. 

No help there. He only saw the broad 
bleak sunshiny plain — that is, at first. But, 
by-and-by, in the circle of mud that surrounded 


164 THE little lame prince. 

the base of the tower he perceived distinctly 
the marks of a horse’s feet, and just in the 
spot where the deaf-mute was accustomed to 
tie up his great black charger, while he him- 
self ascended, there lay the remains of a bundle 
of hay and a feed of corn. 

“Yes, that’s it. He has come and gone, 
taking nurse away with him. Poor nurse ! 
how glad she would be to go ! ” 

That was Prince Dolor’s first thought. His 
second — was n’t it natural ? — was a passionate 
indignation at her cruelty — at the cruelty of 
all the world towards him — a poor little help- 
less boy. Then he determined — forsaken as 
he was — to try and hold on to the last, and 
not to die as long as he could possibly help it. 

Anyhow, it would be easier to die here than 
out in the world, among the terrible doings 
which he had just beheld. From the midst of 
which, it suddenly struck him, the deaf-mute 
had come — contrived somehow to make the 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 165 

nurse understand that the king was dead, and 
she need have no fear in going back to the 
capital, where there was a grand revolution, 
and everything turned upside down. So, of 
course she had gone. 

“I hope she ’ll enjoy it, miserable woman — 
if they do n’t cut off her head too.” 

And then a kind of remorse smote him for 
feeling so bitterly towards her, after all the 
years she had taken care of him — grudgingly, 
perhaps, and coldly; still, she had taken care 
of him, and that even to the last : for, as I have 
said, all his four rooms were as tidy as possible, 
and his meals laid out, that he might have no 
more trouble than could be helped. 

“ Possibly she did not mean to be cruel. I 
won’t judge her,” said he. And afterwards he 
was very glad that he had so determined. 

For the second time he tried to dress him- 
self, and then to do everything he could for 
himself — even to sweeping up the hearth and 


1 66 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

putting on more coals. “ It ’s a funny thing 
for a prince to have to do,” said he laughing. 
“But my godmother once said princes need 
never mind doing anything.” 

And then he thought a little of his god- 
mother. Not of summoning her, or asking 
her to help him — she had evidently left him 
to help himself, and he was determined to try 
his best to do it, being a very proud and inde- 
pendent boy — but he remembered her, ten- 
derly and regretfully, as if even she had been 
a little hard upon him — poor, forlorn boy that 
he was ! But he seemed to have seen and 
learned so much within the last few days, that 
he scarcely felt like a boy, but a man — until 
he went to bed at night. 

When I was a child, I used often to think 
how nice it would be to live in a little house all 
by my own self — a house built high up in a 
tree, or far away in a forest, or half way up 
a hillside, — so deliciously alone and indepen- 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 1 67 

dent. Not a lesson to learn — but no! I 
always liked learning my lessons. Anyhow, 
to choose the lessons I liked best, to have as 
many books to read and dolls to play with as 
ever I wanted : above all, to be free and at 
rest, with nobody to tease, or trouble, or scold 
me, would be charming. For I was a lonely 
little thing, who liked quietness — as many 
children do ; which other children, and some- 
times grown-up people even, can not always 
understand. And so I can understand Prince 
Dolor. 

After his first despair, he was not merely 
comfortable, but actually happy in his solitude, 
doing everything for himself, and enjoying 
everything by himself — until bedtime. 

Then, he did not like it at all. No more, 
I suppose, than other children would have liked 
my imaginary house in a tree, when they had 
had sufficient of their own company. 

But the prince had to bear it — and he did 


1 68 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

bear it — like a prince : for fully five days. 
All that time he got up in the morning and 
went to bed at night, without having spoken 
to a creature, or, indeed, heard a single sound. 
For even his little lark was silent : and as for 
his travelling-cloak, either he never thought 
about it, or else it had been spirited away — 
for he made no use of it, nor attempted to do 
so. 

A very strange existence it was, those five 
lonely days. He never entirely forgot it. It 
threw him back upon himself, and into himself 
— in a way that all of us have to learn when 
we grow up, and are the better for it — but it 
is somewhat hard learning. 

On the sixth day, Prince Dolor had a strange 
composure in his look, but he was very grave, 
and thin, and white. He had nearly come to 
the end of his provisions — and what was to 
happen next ? Get out of the tower he could 
not ; the ladder the deaf-mute used was always 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


169 


carried away again ; and if it had not been, how 
could the poor boy have used it ? And even 
if he slung or flung himself down, and by 
miraculous chance came alive to the foot of 
the tower, how could he run away ? 

Fate had been very hard to him, or so it 
seemed. 

He made up his mind to die. Not that he 
wished to die ; on the contrary, there was a 
great deal that he wished to live to do ; but if 
he must die, he must. Dying did not seem so 
very dreadful ; not even' to lie quiet like his 
uncle, whom he had entirely forgiven now, and 
neither be miserable nor naughty any more, 
and escape all those horrible things that he 
had seen going on outside the palace, in that 
awful place which was called “the world.” 

“ It ’s a great deal nicer here,” said the poor 
little Prince, and collected all his pretty things 
round him : his favorite pictures, which he 
thought he should like to have near him when 


I/O THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

he died ; his books and toys — no, he had 
ceased to care for toys now ; he only liked 
them because he had done so as a child. And 
there he sat very calm and patient, like a king 
in his castle, waiting for the end. 

“Still, I wish I had done something first — 
something worth doing, that somebody might 
remember me by,” thought he. “Suppose I 
had grown a man, and had had work to do, and 
people to care for, and was so useful and busy 
that they liked me, and perhaps even forgot I 
was lame. Then, it would have been nice to 
live, I think.” 

A tear came into the little fellow’s eyes, and 
he listened intently through the dead silence 
for some hopeful sound. 

Was there one — was it his little lark, whom 
he had almost forgotten ? No, nothing half so 
sweet. But it really was something — some- 
thing which came nearer and nearer, so that 
there was no mistaking it. It was the sound 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


171 


of a trumpet, one of the great silver trum- 
pets so admired in Nomansland. Not pleasant 
music, but very bold, grand, and inspiring. 

As he listened to it the boy seemed to recall 
many things which had slipped his memory for 
years, and to nerve himself for whatever might 
be going to happen. 

What had happened was this. 

The poor condemned woman had not been 
such a wicked woman after all. Perhaps her 
courage was not wholly disinterested, but she 
had done a very heroic thing. As soon as 
she heard of the death and burial of the King, 
and of the changes that were taking place in 
the country, a daring idea came into her head 
— to set upon the throne of Nomansland its 
rightful heir. Thereupon she persuaded the 
deaf-mute to take her away with him, and 
they galloped like the wind from city to city, 
spreading everywhere the news that Prince 
Dolor’s death and burial had been an inven- 


172 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


tion concocted by his wicked uncle — that he 
was alive and well, and the noblest young 
Prince that ever was born. 

It was a bold stroke, but it succeeded. The 
country, weary, perhaps, of the late King’s 
harsh rule, and yet glad to save itself from 
the horrors of the last few days, and the still 
further horrors of no rule at all, and having no 
particular interest in the other young princes, 
jumped at the idea of this Prince, who was the 
son of their late good King and the beloved 
Queen Dolorez. 

“ Hurrah for Prince Dolor! Let Prince 
Dolor be our sovereign ! ” rang from end to 
end of the kingdom. Everybody tried to re- 
member what a dear baby he once was — how 
like his mother, who had been so sweet and 
kind, and his father, the finest looking king 
that ever reigned. Nobody remembered his 
lameness — or, if they did, they passed it over 
as a matter of no consequence. They were 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


173 


determined to have him to reign over them, 
boy as he was — perhaps just because he was 
a boy, since in that case the great nobles 
thought they should be able to do as they 
liked with the country. 

Accordingly, with a fickleness not confined 
to the people of Nomansland, no sooner was 
the late King laid in his grave than they pro- 
nounced him to have been a usurper; turned 
all his family out of the palace, and left it 
empty for the reception of the new sovereign, 
whom they went to fetch with great rejoicing; 
a select body of lords, gentlemen, and soldiers, 
travelling night and day in solemn procession 
through the country, until they reached Hope- 
less Tower. 

There they found the Prince, sitting calmly 
on the floor — deadly pale indeed, for he ex- 
pected a quite different end from this, and was 
resolved if he had to die, to die courageously, 
like a prince and a king. 


174 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


But when they hailed him as prince and 
king, and explained to him how matters stood, 
and went down on their knees before him, 
offering the crown (on a velvet cushion, with 
four golden tassels, each nearly as big as his 
head) — small though he was and lame, which 
lameness the courtiers pretended not to notice 
— there came such a glow into his face, such 
a dignity into his demeanor, that he became 
beautiful, king-like. 

“ Yes,” he said, “ if you desire it, I will be 
your king. And I will do my best to make my 
people happy.” 

Then there arose, from inside and outside the 
tower, such a shout as never yet was heard 
across the lonely plain. 

Prince Dolor shrank a little from the deafen- 
ing sound. “ How shall I be able to rule all 
this great people ? Y ou forget, my lords, that 
I am only a little boy still.” 

“ Not so very little,” was the respectful 



“ They went clown on tlieir knees before him, offering 
him the crown on a velvet cushion.” 



THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


175 


answer. “We have searched in the records, 
and found that your Royal Highness — your 
Majesty, I mean — is precisely fifteen years 
old.” 

“ Am I ? ” said Prince Dolor ; and his first 
thought was a thoroughly childish pleasure that 
he should now have a birthday, with a whole 
nation to keep it. Then he remembered that 
his childish days were done. He was a mon- 
arch now. Even his nurse, to whom, the mo- 
ment he saw her, he had held out his hand, 
kissed it reverently, and called him ceremoni- 
ously “ his Majesty the King.” 

“A king must be always a king, I suppose,” 
said he half sadly, when, the ceremonies over, 
he had been left to himself for just ten minutes, 
to put off his boy’s clothes and be re-attired 
in magnificent robes, before he was conveyed 
away from his tower to the Royal Palace. 

He could take nothing with him ; indeed, he 
soon saw that, however politely they spoke, 


76 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


they would not allow him to take anything. 
If he was to be their king, he must give up 
his old life forever. So he looked with tender 
farewell on his old books, old toys, the furniture 
he knew so well, and the familiar plain in all its 
levelness, ugly yet pleasant, simply because it 
was familiar. 

“ It will be a new life in a new world,” said 
he to himself : “ but I’ll remember the old 
things still. And, oh ! if before I go, I could 
but once see my dear old godmother.” 

While he spoke, he had laid himself down on 
the bed for a minute or two, rather tired with 
his grandeur, and confused by the noise of the 
trumpets which kept playing incessantly down 
below. He gazed, half sadly, up to the sky- 
light, whence there came pouring a stream of 
sun-rays, with innumerable motes floating there, 
like a bridge thrown between heaven and earth. 
Sliding down it, as if she had been made of air, 
came the little old woman in gray. 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


177 


So beautiful looked she — old as she was — 
that Prince Dolor was at first quite startled by 
the apparition. Then he held out his arms in 
eager delight. 

“ O, godmother, you have not forsaken me ! ” 

“Not at all, my son. You may not have 
seen me, but I have seen you, many a time.” 

“ How ? ” 

“ O, never mind. I can turn into anything I 
please, you know. And I have been a bear- 
skin rug, and a crystal goblet — and sometimes 
I have changed from inanimate to animate 
nature, put on feathers, and made myself very 
comfortable as a bird.” 

“ Ha ! ” laughed the Prince, a new light 
breaking in upon him, as he caught the infec- 
tion of her tone, lively and mischievous. “ Ha, 
ha ! a lark, for instance ? ” 

“Or a magpie,” answered she, with a capi- 
tal imitation of Mistress Mag’s croaky voice- 
“ Do you suppose I am always sentimental and 


i/8 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


never funny ? — If anything makes you happy, 
gay or grave, do n’t you think it is more than 
likely to come through your old godmother?” 

“I believe that,” said the boy tenderly, 
holding out his arms. They clasped one an- 
other in a close embrace. 

Suddenly Prince Dolor looked very anxious. 
“You will not leave me now that I am a king? 
Otherwise, I had rather not be a king at all. 
Promise never to forsake me ? ” 

The little old woman laughed gaily. “For- 
sake you ? that is impossible. But it is just 
possible you may forsake me. Not probable 
though. Your mother never did, and she 
was a queen. The sweetest queen in all the 
world was the Lady Dolorez.” 

“Tell me about her,” said the boy eagerly. 
“ As I get older I think I can understand more. 
Do tell me.” 

“Not now. You couldn’t hear me for the 
trumpets and the shouting. But when you are 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


179 


come to the palace, ask for a long-closed upper 
room, which looks out upon the Beautiful Moun- 
tains ; open it and take it for your own. When- 
ever you go there, you will always find me, and 
we will talk together about all sorts of things.” 

“And about my mother ? ” 

The little old woman nodded — and kept 
nodding and smiling to herself many times, 
as the boy repeated over and over again the 
sweet words he had never known or under- 
stood — “my mother — my mother.” 

“ Now I must go,” said she, as the trumpets 
blared louder and louder, and the shouts of 
the people showed that they would not endure 
any delay. “ Good-bye, Good-bye ! Open the 
window and out I fly.” 

Prince Dolor repeated gaily the musical 
rhyme — but all the while tried to hold his 
godmother fast. 

Vain, vain! — for the moment that a knock- 
ing was heard at his door, the sun went behind 


8o 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


a cloud, the bright stream of dancing motes 
vanished, and the little old woman with them 
— he knew not where. 

So Prince Dolor quitted his tower — which 
he had entered so mournfully and ignomini- 
ously, as a little helpless baby carried in the 
deaf-mute’s arms — quitted it as the great 
King of Nomansland. 

The only thing he took away with him was 
something so insignificant, that none of the lords, 
gentlemen, and soldiers who escorted him with 
such triumphant splendor, could possibly notice 
it — a tiny bundle, which he had found lying 
on the floor just where the bridge of sunbeams 
had rested. At once he had pounced upon 
it, and thrust it secretly into his bosom, where 
it dwindled into such small proportions, that 
it might have been taken for a mere chest- 
comforter — a bit of flannel — or an old pocket- 
handkerchief ! 

It was his travelling-cloak. 


CHAPTER X. 


Did Prince Dolor become a great king? 
Was he, though little more than a boy, “the 
father of his people,” as all kings ought to be ? 
Did his reign last long — long and happy ? — 
and what were the principal events of it, as 
chronicled in the history of Nomansland ? 

Why, if I were to answer all these questions, 
I should have to write another book. And 
I’m tired, children, tired — as grown-up people 
sometimes are ; though not always with play. 
(Besides, I have a small person belonging to 
me, who, though she likes extremely to listen 
to the word-of-mouth story of this book, grum- 
bles much at the writing of it, and has run 
about the house clapping her hands with joy 
(181) 


82 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


when mamma told her that it was nearly fin- 
ished. But that is neither here nor there.) 

I have related, as well as I could, the history 
of Prince Dolor, but with the history of No- 
mansland I am as yet unacquainted. If any- 
body knows it, perhaps he or she will kindly 
write it all down in another book. But mine 
is done. 

However, of this I am sure, that Prince 
Dolor made an excellent king. Nobody ever 
does anything less well, not even the com- 
monest duty of common daily life, for having 
such a godmother as the little old woman 
clothed in gray, whose name is — well, I leave 
you to guess. Nor, I think, is anybody less 
good, less capable of both work and enjoyment 
in after life, for having been a little unhappy in 
his youth, as the Prince had been. 

I cannot take upon myself to say that he was 
always happy now — who is? — or that he had 
no cares ; just show me the person who is quite 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 1 83 

free from them ! But, whenever people worried 
and bothered him — as they did sometimes, 
with state etiquette, state squabbles, and the 
like, setting up themselves and pulling down 
their neighbors — he would take refuge in 
that upper room which looked out on the 
Beautiful Mountains, and laying his head on 
his godmother’s shoulder, become calmed and 
at rest. 

Also, she helped him out of any difficulty 
which now and then occurred — for there 
never was such a wise old woman. When 
the people of Nomansland raised the alarm — 
as sometimes they did — for what people can 
exist without a little fault-finding ? — and 
began to cry out, “ Unhappy is the nation 
whose king is a child,” she would say to him 
gently, “You are a child. Accept the fact. 
Be humble — be teachable. Lean upon the 

wisdom of others till you have gained your 
>> 


own. 


184 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

He did so. He learned how to take advice 
before attempting to give it, to obey before he 
could righteously command. He assembled 
round him all the good and wise of his king- 
dom — laid all its affairs before them, and was 
guided by their opinions until he had maturely 
formed his own. 

This he did, sooner than anybody would have 
imagined, who did not know of his godmother 
and his travelling-cloak — two secret blessings, 
which, though many guessed at, nobody quite 
understood. Nor did they understand why he 
loved so the little upper room, except that it 
had been his mother’s room, from the window 
of which, as people remembered now, she had 
used to sit for hours watching the Beautiful 
Mountains. 

Out of that window he used to fly — not very 
often ; as he grew older, the labors of state 
prevented the frequent use of his travelling- 
cloak ; still he did use it sometimes. Only 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 1 85 

now it was less for his own pleasure and 
amusement than to see something, or investi- 
gate something, for the good of the country. 
But he prized his godmothers gift as dearly as 
ever. It was a comfort to him in all his vexa- 
tions ; an enhancement of all his joys. It made 
him almost forget his lameness — which was 
never cured. 

However, the cruel things which had been 
once foreboded of him did not happen. His 
misfortune was not such a heavy one after all. 
It proved to be much less inconvenience, even 
to himself, than had been feared. A council 
of eminent surgeons and mechanicians invented 
for him a wonderful pair of crutches, with the 
help of which, though he never walked easily or 
gracefully, he did manage to walk, so as to be 
quite independent. And such was the love his 
people bore him, that they never heard the 
sound of his crutch on the marble palace-floors 
without a leap of the heart, for they knew 


1 86 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

that good was coming to them whenever he 
approached them. 

Thus, though he never walked in proces- 
sions, never reviewed his troops mounted on a 
magnificent charger, nor did any of the things 
which make a show monarch so much appreci- 
ated, he was able for all the duties and a great 
many of the pleasures of his rank. When he 
held his levies, not standing, but seated on a 
throne, ingeniously contrived to hide his in- 
firmity, the people thronged to greet him ; when 
he drove out through the city streets, shouts 
followed him wherever he went — every coun- 
tenance brightened as he passed, and his own, 
perhaps, was the brightest of all. 

First, because, accepting his affliction as 
inevitable, he took it patiently ; second, be- 
cause, being a brave man, he bore it bravely ; 
trying to forget himself, and live out of him- 
self, and in and for other people. Therefore 
other people grew to love him so well, that I 



u They knew that good was coming to them whenever 
he approached them.” 

(187) 




1 88 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


think hundreds of his subjects might have 
been found who were almost ready to die for 
their poor lame King. 

He never gave them a queen. When they 
implored him to choose one, he replied that his 
country was his bride, and he desired no other. 
But, perhaps, the real reason was that he 
shrank from any change ; and that no wife in 
all the world would have been found so perfect, 
so lovable, so tender to him in all his weakness, 
as his beautiful old godmother. 

His . four-and-twenty other godfathers and 
godmothers, or as many of them as were still 
alive, crowded round him as soon as he as- 
cended the throne. He was very civil to them 
all, but adopted none of the names they had 
given him, keeping to the one by which he had 
been always known, though it had now almost 
lost its meaning ; for King Dolor was one of 
the happiest and cheerfullest men alive. 

He did a good many things, however, unlike 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


189 


most men and most kings, which a little aston- 
ished his subjects. First, he pardoned the con- 
demned woman, who had been his nurse, and 
ordained that from henceforward there should 
be no such thing as the punishment of death in 
Nomansland. All capital criminals were to 
be sent to perpetual imprisonment in Hopeless 
Tower, and the plain round about it, where they 
could do no harm to anybody, and might in 
time do a little good, as the woman had 
done. 

Another surprise he shortly afterwards gave 
the nation. He recalled his uncle’s family, 
who had fled away in terror to another country, 
and restored them to all their honors in their 
own. By-and-by he chose the eldest son of 
his eldest cousin (who had been dead a year), 
and had him educated in the royal palace, as 
the heir to the throne. This little prince was 
a quiet, unobtrusive boy, so that everybody 
wondered at the King’s choosing him, when 


I9O THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

there were so many more; but as he grew 
into a fine young fellow, good and brave, they 
agreed that the King judged more wisely than 
they. 

“Not a lame prince neither,” his Majesty 
observed one day, watching him affectionately ; 
for he was the best runner, the highest leaper, 
the keenest and most active sportsman in the 
country. “One cannot make oneself, but one 
can sometimes help a little in the making of 
somebody else. It is well.” 

This was said, not to any of his great lords 
and ladies, but to a good old woman — - his first 
homely nurse — whom he had sought for far 
and wide, and at last found, in her cottage 
among the Beautiful Mountains. He sent for 
her to visit him once a year, and treated her 
with great honor until she died. He was 
equally kind, though somewhat less tender, to 
his other nurse, who, after receiving her pardon, 
returned to her native town and grew into a 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. I9I 

great lady, and I hope a good one. But as she 
was so grand a personage now, any little faults 
she had did not show. 

Thus King Dolor’s reign passed, year after 
year, long and prosperous. Whether he was 
happy — “as happy as a king ” — is a question 
no human being can decide. But I think he 
was, because he had the power of making every- 
body about him happy, and did it too; also 
because he was his godmother’s godson, and 
could shut himself up with her whenever he 
liked, in that quiet little room, in view of the 
Beautiful Mountains, which nobody else ever 
saw or cared to see. They were too far off, 
and the city lay so low. But there they were, 
all the time. No change ever came to them ; 
and I think, at any day throughout his long 
reign, the King would sooner have lost his 
crown than have lost sight of the Beautiful 
Mountains. 

In course of time, when the little prince, his 


192 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


cousin, was grown into a tall young man, capa- 
ble of all the duties of a man, his Majesty did 
one of the most extraordinary acts ever known 
in a sovereign beloved by his people and pros- 
perous* in his reign. He announced that he 
wished to invest his heir with the royal purple 
— at any rate, for a time — while he himself 
went away on a distant journey, whither he 
had long desired to go. 

Everybody marvelled, but nobody opposed 
him. Who could oppose the good King, who 
was not a young king now? And, besides, the 
nation had a great admiration for the young 
Regent — and, possibly, a lurking pleasure in 
change. 

So there was fixed a day, when all the people 
whom it would hold, assembled in the great 
square of the capital, to see the young Prince 
installed solemnly in his new duties, and under- 
taking his new vows. He was a very fine 
young fellow ; tall and straight as a poplar 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


193 


tree, with a frank handsome face — a great 
deal handsomer than the King, some people 
said, but others thought differently. However, 
as his Majesty sat on his throne, with his gray 
hair falling from underneath his crown, and a 
few wrinkles showing in spite of his smile, there 
was something about his countenance which 
made his people, even while they shouted, re- 
gard him with a tenderness mixed with awe. 

He lifted up his thin, slender hand, and 
there came a silence over the vast crowd 
immediately. Then he spoke, in his own 
accustomed way, using no grand words, but 
saying what he had to say in the simplest 
fashion, though with a clearness that struck 
their ears like the first song of a bird in the 
dusk of the morning. 

“ My people, I am tired : I want to rest. I 
have had a long reign, and done much work — 
at least, as much as I was able to do. Many 
might have done it better than I — but none 


194 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


with a better will. Now I leave it to others. 
I am tired, very tired. Let me go home.” 

There rose a murmur — of content or dis- 
content none could well tell ; then it died 
down again, and the assembly listened silently 
once more. 

“ I am not anxious about you — my people 
— my children,” continued the king. “You 
are prosperous and at peace. I leave you in 
good hands. The Prince Regent will be a 
fitter king for you than I.” 

“ No, no, no ! ” rose the universal shout — 
and those who had sometimes found fault with 
him shouted louder than anybody. But he 
seemed as if he heard them not. 

“Yes, yes,” said he, as soon as the tumult 
had a little subsided: and his voice sounded 
firm and clear ; and some very old people, who 
boasted of having seen him as^ a child, declared 
that his face took a sudden change, and grew 
as young and sweet as that of the little Prince 



“He lifted up his thin, slender hand, and there came 
a silence over the vast crowd immediately.” 


095 ) 


196 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


Dolor. “Yes, I must go. It is time for me 
to go. Remember me sometimes, my people, 
for I have loved you well. And I am going 
a long way, and I do not think I shall come 
back any more.” 

He drew a little bundle out of his breast 
pocket — a bundle that nobody had ever seen 
before. It was small and shabby-looking, and 
tied up with many knots, which untied them- 
selves in an instant. With a joyful counte- 
nance, he muttered over it a few half-intelligible 
words. Then, so suddenly that even those 
nearest to his Majesty could not tell how it 
came about, the King was away — away — 
floating right up in the air — upon something, 
they knew not what, except that it appeared to 
be as safe and pleasant as the wings of a bird. 

And after him sprang a bird — a dear little 
lark, rising from whence no one could say, 
since larks do not usually build their nests in 
the pavement of city squares. But there it 


THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 


197 


was, a real lark, singing far over their heads, 
louder, and clearer, and more joyful, as it 
vanished further into the blue sky. 

Shading their eyes, and straining their ears, 
the astonished people stood, until the whole 
vision disappeared like a speck in the clouds — 
the rosy clouds that overhung the Beautiful 
Mountains. 

Then they guessed that they should see 
their beloved king no more. Well-beloved as 
he was, he had always been somewhat of a 
mystery to them, and such he remained. But 
they went home, and, accepting their new 
monarch, obeyed him faithfully for his cousin’s 
sake. 

King Dolor was never again beheld or heard 
of in his own country. But the good he had 
done there lasted for years and years ; he was 
long missed and deeply mourned — at least, so 
far as anybody could mourn one who was gone 
on such a happy journey. 


I98 THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. 

Whither he went, or who went with him, it 
is impossible to say. But I myself believe 
that his godmother took him, on his travelling- 
cloak, to the Beautiful Mountains. What he 
did there, or where he is now, who can tell? 
I cannot. But one thing I am quite sure of, 
that, wherever he is, he is perfectly happy. 

And so, when I think of him, am I. 




THE END. 



* 



















